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Residents in Sooke are concerned about the imminent tax hikes to pay for the new sewer system. |
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Calendar of Events & special Dates |
Grants leave taxpayers shelling out over $12 million by Norman Chatfield to Sooke News Mirror May 9, 2001 The four infrastructure grants applied for by our mayor and council so far total $36.5 million. Were they all to be approved, this would leave the tax payers of Sooke owing $12.17 million, and that assumes that all projects come in on budget! This, it should be noted, is within the first half of their first, and hopefully last, term in office. It can safely be anticipated that by the end of their term, Sooke will have some of the highest taxes on Vancouver Island. It would seem that they are determined to turn our nice rural area into another Langford, at the expense of the local tax payer. I have news for them, if I had wanted to live in somewhere like Langford, I would have bought there in the first place. We are expected to believe that big industry and/or box stores are simply waiting for these projects to be completed before coming to Sooke. For some reason I find it difficult to credit these big firms are only waiting until the taxes are tripled. The undemocratic "council initiative" loophole adopted by our officials is just a particularly odious form of negative billing, a procedure that was deemed unacceptable when attempted by the cable TV companies. It is time for the residents of Sooke to let these big spenders of our tax dollars know that this sort of reckless disregard for the taxpayer will not be tolerated. I urge all local taxpayers to contact the Mayor and Council to let them know in no uncertain terms that we like our rural atmosphere, and low taxes. Sure, some things could be improved, but progress should be made in small steps, when the tax base can afford it, and not before. |
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