When deciding on property tax hikes, successions of West Vancouver’s councils all chose a nice, round figure: zero.
Then as now, many were receptive to the play-today, pay-tomorrow school of finance. But tomorrow is coming. And despite arriving on schedule, the payday of reckoning is going to be a shock for a great many residents.
This Monday, West Vancouver council will likely support a 4.78 per cent tax hike. That’s similar to increases mulled in Vancouver and Victoria – but it probably shouldn’t be. Many of the district’s $761-million worth of assets are now unsafe, unused, or embarrassing.
The Ambleside Youth Centre was marked for demolition because the alternative – fixing the roof – was too costly. Klee Wyck is in shambles. The Nelson Creek Bridge needs replacement.
Thanks to a more prudent approach to taxation in recent years, council will likely go into 2020 with $14.5 million socked away. District staff previously estimated repairing all at-risk infrastructure would cost $29 million.
West Vancouver is a collection of beautiful homes. And if that’s all it is, it makes sense to protect taxpayers by launching a wrecking ball into youth centres and artist havens. But if West Vancouver is a community, this council needs to plan for the future while redressing the pandering of past local governments.
Anathema though it may be, it’s time to tax and spend. It’s time to invest in the places and programs that bond us.
Far too many leaders have opened the municipal piggy bank with a hammer. Please, mayor and council: Put down the hammer. Pick up the superglue.
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