The Editor,
Dear mayors of the Tri-Cities:
We recently received a nice little pamphlet about our utility bills. At another time of year, we receive news about the mill rate in our city and, another time,
we receive our tax notices.
What I want is a simple statement that tells me exactly what my total taxes will be for the year, whether property taxes, water rates, utility rates, school taxes whatever — an aggregated total.
On top of that, I would like to see a nice little graph showing what aggregated total I have paid in each of the last five or 10 years along with the percentage increase each year — personalized to me and my house.
Senior governments require financial institutions to provide this kind of information regarding my investment returns. Why should we accept less from our local governments? It is not rocket science.
There is no excuse to justify municipalities not providing this information unless their goal is to keep the public in the dark for fear of being held accountable by the citizenry. We all have this information in bits and pieces but we are entitled as taxpayers to be given this information in a digestible form by our city government.
Norman Reilly, Coquitlam
