Suggestion to help eradicate possibility of having to hike municipal taxes

Members of Council and Mayor O'Brien:

While I understand and almost unconditionally support the attempt to balance the books for 2008, I could not believe what I read in today's Citizen. It seems that Council pulled a fast one when the lights dimmed after the Albion Road reconsideration vote and the initial budget presentation took place.

To what, exactly, am I referring?

A motion to nix the ridiculous $50 charge that a taxpayer must incur in order to acquire a paper copy of this year's budget documents was defeated in the name of saving a few bucks. While I believe we should all be able to get a copy to examine in the privacy of our home (as opposed to travelling to a "library to be closed later" to see the copy in the reference section), I could buy in to the concept if those who voted against the motion were also against the so-called expense the city would have to cover each time a citizen dropped by to request one.

Amount the city saved by killing that idea? Around $6,000 according to Councillor Deans or $12,000 if one were to believe the staff response to someone else's question prior to voting.
But once that "fiscally prudent vote" was taken, another vote loomed ahead: not only will the City of Ottawa hand over a prime parcel of land to Algonquin College (a provincially funded educational institution) for nothing more than a song, Council voted to allocate $5 million for a pedestrian overpass! According the tiny Citizen article, councillors apparently believe that this bridge will help with some mixed-use development project. Did members of City Council not learn a lesson from the Rideau Canal pedestrian bridge fiasco?

While I understand the difference between the operating and capital sides of the budget, I cannot understand how any Councillor can look at a taxpayer in the eyes and explain why they have to pay higher taxes (and $50 for the budget document) because the City has to tighten its belt and then vote two hours later to spend millions for a bridge! I know that Woodroffe Avenue is a busy and possibly "dangerous" arterial road, but that's what the traffic control signals are for. They're working just fine right now.

Spending $5 million on a bridge rather than asking people to use the already available signals is utterly ridiculous when you're telling communities across the city that libraries, community centres and wading pools have to close. It's assinine when you're hiking user fees for those who use skating rinks for recreational skating or Oldtymers hockey. It is unfathomable when another item on the chopping block is graffiti removal or grass cutting. Has Council not learned its lesson on that subject? It's easy to cut grass cutting in November or December. Remember how quickly the dandelions and weeds take over and grow to two or three feet high in the spring? Council after Council votes to cut grass cutting at budget time, only to reinstate the funding after residents complain about how unsightly the City keeps getting year after year.
I think we all agree that raising taxes is undesirable. A neat trick past Councils have used has been to move fees (and then hike them) to the water bill. Most have yet to catch on to that shell game.

Let's assume we don't want to do this again this year - here's a tool that I don't think anyone has considered in the past... and it's guaranteed to increase revenues and yet residents will be COMPLETELY in control of whether they will incur the expense - meaning it gets the City and all elected officials off the hook! Double all parking fines effective January 1, 2008. Bylaw control officers will always be needed to write tickets because people are too stupid to see or obey directional signs. Stupid might be a bit harsh, but how else can one explain the ever-growing revenue associated with parking tickets?

While the inconsiderate sod who parks in a handicapped spot near the shopping mall will be hopping mad when the fine he faces grows from $300 to $600, he'll think a thousand times before doing it again... and that extra sum of dollars can go towards keeping skating hours for children affordable, an extra wading pool might stand a chance and a few extra bucks might save a library or two.

Think about it! Everybody is affected by a tax hike. Everybody hates rising taxes. Find your administrative efficiencies, kill the ill-timed bridge idea (anybody up for a reconsideration vote on that one?) and double the City's take associated with parking infractions. The vast majority of Ottawans can then be spared a tax hike and Mayor O'Brien can keep the "zero means zero" promise. I can't find the numbers for Ottawa, but the City of Toronto issues 2.8 million tickets each year - even if Ottawa were to issue but 25% of that sum, that's lots of tickets and at the average current cost for an infraction, that's a few bucks. Multiply it by two and all of a sudden there's that much more room in the budget.

Just think about it!