The number of voters opposing the sewer deal illustrates exactly how disconnected this administration is from the electorate, and the monthly bill from EPCOR further illustrates exactly how bad the deal was. The monthly bill from EPCOR is $69,415.49. Add that to principal and interest for the system, and it’s only $463 per parcel, not $515. Absent the fact that the monthly rate is considerably less than the 21-year contract rate, one is left to wonder what the remaining $52 of the increased $515 parcel tax is really for, since we’re stuck with it with or without the EPCOR deal.
It looks to me as though this administration planned to gouge the existing rate payers to subsidize the sewer extension east of the river. Kaltasin Road properties are not getting developed without it.
In 2003 the District spent $3,509,497. In 2004, the first year of Janet Evans as Mayor, it spent $10,835,532. In 2005 it spent $19,914,894. In 2006 it pulled back to $6,253,739 and it has increased every year since, to the 2011 budget of $15,294,991. The budget through 2015 averages $14,996,549 p/yr.
The legacy of this administration should scare the pants off anyone that owns property, particularly those on a fixed income.
The Sooke Committee for Lower Taxes has been struck to brainstorm solutions to this mess, which, according to the Mayor’s statement in council prior to the sewer petition, could include Sooke being sued by EPCOR for not giving them the deal. I look forward to hearing from voters with an interest. There are solutions other than raising property taxes to crippling levels, and come the November election I would like see a council prepared with solutions.
Terrance Martin
Sooke