It's a spending spree - and we are all invited !!!

Warning ...
For those of you who are already frustrated by the out of control spending by the District and Council you may want to stop reading now.  This post will only add fuel to the fire.


The 5 year, 2014-2018, financial plan for Lantzville is not an encouraging read. 

Something that jumps out immediately is the fact that the District is planning on operating a deficit for the next four years.  This information is found in the line item "Contributions to/from Surplus (Deficit)".  The four red circled items are deficits.

I like to break all this down into what is the tax increase - or equivalent tax increase to me. 
(Note: every $15,000 spent by the District is equivalent to a 1% tax increase)

Working with 2015 numbers from the 5 year plan only:

1) We have a deficit of $101,449.  This is equivalent to a 6.76% tax increase.

2) We have to add in the payments to Nanaimo as a result of the newly signed water agreement.  Published at $50,155.   This is equivalent to a 3.34% tax increase.


3) We have a 2% tax increase included in the budget.

The net total = 12.11%


 
Twelve percent.  This would be the tax increase required if the District did not run a deficit for 2015.

However, they plan on running a deficit, so our tax increase will be around a "mere" 5.3%.  The deficit will be drawn out of the cash reserves in order to keep the tax increase from being double digits.

So I suppose the good news is that we will only be hit with a 5.3% tax increase next year.
The bad news is that the District is drawing down it's cash reserves to accomplish this feat.  The true increase is actually 12.1%.  

One can only kick the can so far down the road before the cash reserves become zero.  At that point, residents will be hit with a whopper of a tax increase.

Now I cannot speak directly to wages for the residents of Lantzville, but I think it's a fairly safe to say that there were very few working residents out there that received a 12% pay increase last year.   If the taxpayers are not seeing increases of this magnitude for their paycheques, why does our elected Council and District think it's acceptable to budget in this fashion?


I now go back to the 5 year plan for more spending highlights.  I have two numbers in red squares - this is Phase 3 sewer.

For those of you who have plenty of cash kicking around because the tax increase was only 5.3%, the District will help ease you of the burden of that extra cash by presenting you with a bill for a sewer connection.
(I am not delving into the pros/cons for Phase 3 sewer, nor making any declaration if I am for or against this project - I just wanted to mention it as it is a cost that may be coming your way next year.)

According to the 5 year plan, the difference between the grant and the project expenditure is $4.1 million.

So there you have it.  Sizable tax increases, drawing down the town cash reserves, and costly capital projects, all coming your way in the near future if this path is not corrected.