"Cowardice asks the question...is it safe? Expediency asks the question...is it politic? Vanity asks the question...is it popular? But conscience asks the question...is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because it is right." ~Dr. Martin Luther King

Monday 17 January 2011

Affluence Is Neither The Problem Nor The Solution

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Things I Cannot Explain":

That's an interesting statement:

"We established there is no economic hardship in Aurora."

How was that derived? A little futher explanation may be necessary on that statement.

Just because Aurora may have a high average household income doesn't preclude it from having citizens with no economic hardship. If we follow that line then the previous council's statement that Aurora doesn't need affordable housing holds true and perhaps the local food bank is not needed. Whether you are a homeowner or not, I believe Aurora is an expensive place to live. Apartment rents are on par with Toronto and there's not many options. The people you speak of in working in retail in Aurora soon won't be able to live here and perhaps they already don't and have to commute from outside. I am sure there are people who bought in Aurora, 5,10,15 or 20 years ago who would not be able to afford to buy in Aurora today.

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When I said "We established there is no economic hardship in Aurora" I should have said I took that from the various graphs and tables presented at the orientation for new councillors. The information was followed by the outline of how a budget is constructed.

It may well be true, a large number of Aurora homeowners are in an income category far higher than the average represented in the tables.

It may also be true I don't have to worry my pretty little head about how they can afford to pay Aurora taxes.

I am not prepared to make that assumption.

If the town exercises restraint so as not to create hardship for people in the $15/$20K income range, we can be certain the interest of those in the half million dollar bracket will not be jeopardised. No matter the income bracket, I don't think any sensible person appreciates needless extravagance or seeing money spent without value received.

Am I making any sense to you?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

what makes sense to me is an immediate review of the operations ,freeze the hiring of any new bodies , find out what value all of the existing bodies bring to the town and generally stream line the organization, The Era of Empire Building should have departed with the last regime, What are you doing about it ????

Anonymous said...

Yes you absolutely are making sense. It is all about prudent fiscal management for ALL taxpayers. The surest way to do that is to keep those with the least in the centre of your focus because then you can be assured that those with more are taken care of too. Our taxes are more than high enough and nothing irks me more than having an increase in taxes because money is wasted and there is no discernible value to us the taxpayers, for the increase.We should not be shouldering increases that are quite clearly of value to only a select few. I would rather see my money spent on real services such as better and more timely snow ploughing, which is a hot topic at the moment.