Vancouver city budget criticized from left and right

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      A former Coalition of Progressive Electors councillor talks about a different sort of crime in connection with the 2015 city budget approved on March 3. Though it’s not a Criminal Code offence, it’s a misdeed, at least as far as Tim Louis is concerned.

      Louis, a lawyer, was commenting on the 4.6-percent boost to the funding of the Vancouver Police Department as compared to the 1.8-percent increase for libraries.

      Police are getting $273.6 million even as the number of violent crimes fell 10.9 percent in 2014. And while property crime rose 10.3 percent last year, other crimes decreased 37.8 percent.

      According to Louis, a former chair of city council’s finance committee, the $1.2-billion city operating budget is not progressive.

      “A progressive budget would recognize the long-standing year-over-year decrease in crime rate and adjust the police budget accordingly,” Louis told the Straight by phone. “It would then take the freed-up money and invest it in services that improve the quality of life of citizens of Vancouver: libraries, community centres, youth workers, and social housing. The fact that the library budget is going up approximately one-quarter as much as the police budget—that’s the real crime.”

      NPA councillor George Affleck doesn’t like the budget either, though for different reasons. In a phone interview with the Straight, he said this year’s 2.4-percent property-tax increase is being supplemented with higher utility fees, resulting in a greater revenue grab.

      Affleck pointed out that council is supporting a 0.5-percentage-point sales-tax increase to fund transportation improvements in an upcoming plebiscite. He claimed that there’s no offsetting belt-tightening at the city level. “I thought it would be a good gesture on our part to show that in the city of Vancouver…we’re asking for more here but we’re taking care of you here,” Affleck said. “Unfortunately, that didn’t roll with Vision.”

      Comments

      2 Comments

      More Blergh

      Mar 6, 2015 at 12:15am

      The year over year decrease in statistical crime is because the police aren't laying charges in every encounter they have with the mentally ill. Why would they? Does Tim Louis think they should as an accounting method?
      How bout this instead? We quit pretending that mental health issues all fall under the same degree as mild anxiety or depression and provide centralized residential care for the severely mentally ill. The money we'd save by not providing hundreds and hundreds of various social service agencies with endless grants and paycheques would be monumental. The mentally ill would no longer have to live like rats in alleys. ...what a concept. And we could free up a lot of cash to address things like wait lists in health care and other issues.

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      Even More Blergh

      Mar 6, 2015 at 12:36am

      It isn't good enough for politicians like Tim Louis to simply shrug off these issues as provincial policy and say there's nothing he can do about it. He can say a lot and point the finger toward where the blame really belongs. So can every civic politician that is fed up with having issues like this drain the municipalities of money and resources.

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