Councillors should lead by example

Dear Editor,

Oshawa taxpayers will soon be receiving their 2016 property tax bill, which will show an increase of approximately 2.5 per cent, or double the rate of inflation.

The mayor and Oshawa councillors, all of whom have six-figure annual incomes, claim that the rate of increase is unavoidable because of inflation and contractual obligations. This is a distortion of the financial reality of the cost of city government.

City labour costs (management and union workers) make up approximately 70 per cent of the total financial budget. City employees receive extremely good wages, very generous benefits, gold-standard pensions and in some cases severances and post employment benefits.

Until the mayor and councillors start to seriously address the cost of government, Oshawa residents can continue to expect excessive annual tax increases on already extremely high property tax bills.

Failure to address and restrain and stabilize labour costs will mean that 760 city employees are, in essence, making Oshawa residents “property tax hostages”.

Most property owners have a tax bill which amounts to a second mortgage. This is unacceptable and will continue until our elected representatives take some real action to lower costs.

They should start by freezing their own salaries, eliminating the $4,200 annual stipend for chairing committee meetings and lowering each Councillor’s $5,200 a year gas allowance.

In other words, lead by example.

Greg Milosh