Reading through city council’s reflections from 2018 in the Gazette, I am amazed at some of the creative messaging techniques used by councillors to spin issues. I am perplexed as to how council can be so misaligned with the wishes of the majority of St. Albertans.
I see three main issues that council has made questionable decisions in 2018:
1) Storefront library – What amount of letter writing, public plebiscites and widespread discontent is necessary for council to understand that the majority of people in St. Albert do not support another library in any form?
Beyond the fact that council is showing a blatant disregard for democratic principles, they have openly insulted the intelligence of all St. Albertans by implying that we don’t have the capacity to understand the definition of a library.
2) Electrical tax – How can someone cheer on the fact that they have found a way to tax the citizens of St. Albert more and make the city less attractive to live in? Council has spent a lot of effort to create the illusion that they are generating “new” revenue from sources such as churches and schools. Unless I am mistaken, it is the citizens of St. Albert that attend St. Albert churches and the homeowners in St. Albert that pay school taxes so council is reaching into the same pockets and asking for more money.
The franchise fee is a parasitic tax, period. It adds no value to our electrical service but is a way for council to create the facade of protecting homeowner taxes.
By simply eliminating the library that the people of St. Albert do not want, we could eliminate this tax. I applaud Councillor Hughes for having the courage to stand up against this non-value added tax.
3) Let me give myself a raise – A completely unethical, conflict of interest decision. Contrary to all other hard-working, tax-paying income earners in St. Albert, council has made a determination that their compensation is based on take-home pay and not gross salary. Using that logic they have decided that they can unilaterally award themselves a raise to make up for any changes in taxation that could reduce their take-home pay. In my experience, I am unaware of any St. Albert employee who has that luxury.
Anyone with an ounce of integrity and modest understanding of public perception would know that as a public official you should never be directly involved with a decision that increases your compensation on the backs of the overtaxed payer.
Council’s hard work maintaining St. Albert’s position as one of the highest taxed municipalities in the province is paying dividends with a lower proportion of young adults and young families being attracted to our city as compared with our neighbouring communities that enjoy a lower tax. Perhaps for 2019, council could seriously consider this issue and spend more time making tough decisions on cost control and less time on creative message spinning.
Alan Luck, St. Albert
