[I’ve been looking for an excuse to use that headline for years]
Councillors Gloria McCluskey and Sue Uteck will appear on CBC’s Information Morning tomorrow (Friday) morning at 7:45am to discuss “tax reform.” McCluskey is opposed to the proposal; Uteck is supportive of it.
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Why everyone loses under the city’s new property tax plan
Renters and owners, city slickers and suburbanites: none are spared in the effort to shift wealth from poor to rich—not even the rich themselves. The good news? City council can still stop it.
This article appears in Dec 10-16, 2009.
Utek’s district is the main area to benefit from the changes, I don’t know why any other councillor would agree with her?
I think somebody needs to teach the powers that be how to manage money (tax-payers money).
They get a raise in pay and then lower taxes, this right after they complain about an unbalanced budget………can’t have your cake and eat it to.
It’s time somebody in City Hall started thinking about who’s money thier playing with.
Like I said, Gloria is working class, her property is worth a third of Sue Utecks.. Gloria represents the regular people and Sue is and is for the people that think they are the priviledged…Isn’t it funny her district benefints the most?
Gloria is working class?? With all respect to the councilor, Gloria is the longest serving member of city council since amalgamation, and the former mayor of Dartmouth before amalgamation. Those pay cheques are the highest in the hierarchy of municipal government, second only to the Mayor’s. I’d say she’s been doing ok for a very long time.
As for Utek’s district, the majority of her constituents will ‘benefit’ from tax reform just as much as any of the folks in any other district who either over pay for what they receive, or underpay and complain that they receive nothing. Infact, all formal surveys that lead to the tax reform initiative show that there is a higher degree of support for tax reform among rural and suburban districts than from residents in the urban core.
I hope that people are smarter than to buy into the cartoonish representation (often depicted in this paper) of South End residents. The MAJORITY of residents in this district are NOT monocle-wearing business moguls who drive their solid gold Bentleys around their multimillion dollar homes while giving the queen’s hello to all the scallywags visiting Point Pleasant Park. People who believe that probably play too much Monopoly.
It is just as offensive to assume that Dartmouth residents are nothing but overweight mobile home owners and trashy, low-pants wearing, wannabe gangsters.
Sorry issmat, are those formal studies done by Don Mills group?
I think your biases are evident in your profile.
And nice way to backhandedly slag the Dartmouth folks.
You wouldn’t happen to be a member of that wonderful Halifax Fusion group, would you?
Biases? Have I said anything untrue or embellished here? If you disagree with what I said, why not address that instead of trying to discredit me personally by making empty accusations and insinuating underhanded allegiances.
I don’t think that what I said is complex or vague enough to warrant the cliche “he’s a conspirator” response from you. I gave a pretty straight forward comment based on fact and not opinion. Surely you can dispute it in a similar manner?
Do you disagree with my comment that Gloria, a long-time well paid career politician, is not ‘working class’ (whichever way you define that)?
Or, do you think I’m being dishonest and that the majority of South Enders are indeed the Monopoly characters depicted in many of Tim’s writings?
Are you disputing the survey results? CRA was contracted by City Council to perform the survey. Regardless of how you PERSONALLY feel about the owners of CRA, this is about the results of the survey and the scientific standard in which it was conducted. Survey questions were ultimately directed and approved by the contracting body (HRM), not Don Mills.
Perhaps you have access to another professional survey that suggests that the majority of Haligonians are, infact, happy with the level of taxes they pay and the services they receive for it?? Now THAT would shut me up proper! It would probably also end CRA as a professional and credible research company. How could they have gotten it SO WRONG!
There was no intention to slag Dartmouth. I’m simply pointing out the ridiculousness of the extremes being utilized by people on either side of the issue to depict the other side in a highly emotional debate. Painting residents of entire districts with one-colored (and quite inaccurate) brushes is irresponsible, offensive, and obviously doesn’t reflect reality.
Young blowhards with a “Follow my thoughts on my blog”, do kinda bug me.
Hey, thanks for putting PERSONALLY in all caps, I think most of the folks from Dartmouth would have missed that oh so subtle point.
I think McClusky started politics in her 60’s so if that’s a career, I guess looking for quarters on the beach with a metal detector might be yours. Does she get the second highest pay? I don’t know, do you? Or are you talking out of your ass?
That CRA survey was coached and smoothed in a way to produce the results that were requested of them. Have you read the minutes of the CWG executive committee when they “approved” the survey that showed an overwhelming majority of residents were in favour of the games? If I commisioned CRA to show that the majority of residents were against reform, they could make it happen.
As far as “the scientific standard in which it was conducted”, deviations and distributions have nothing to do with the questions being asked.
You seem like a well-educated guy, come clean about your own agenda, which is obvious from your writings, and everyone will respect you more.
Hide behind the cloak of ” balanced and studied” opinion and you come off looking like a fraud.
And you are a member of Fusion, aren’t ya?
I heard Gloria and Sue on CBC this morning – Gloria, you’re awesome! You’ve got guts, woman – I wish you were our councellor!
According to this article from earlier this week, Councilors receive about $72K and the Mayor gets close to $140K.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/nova-scotia/story…
Seeing that there is no additional rungs in the political ladder between councilors and the mayor, I thought it was safe to assume that councilors are the second-highest paid people in municipal government. I should have added the caveat that the scale doesn’t include non-political staff. There are members of city staff who make more than councilors (engineers etc.).
As for the survey, I don’t believe that it was conducted in a skewed manner just to lend confirmation to a pre-determined course of action. You think council (including Gloria), city staff, and Don Mills got together and concocted a conspiracy. I guess we’re just going to disagree on that because it’s a matter of opinion.
As for my ‘agenda’, if you find it to be clear from my writings (and I try to be very clear), then what is it exactly that you want me to ‘come clean’ about in order to earn your respect??
It doesn’t sound like you harbor much love for Fusion. Is it the organization and its objectives that you disdain, or is it the people who join it? I bet you have yet another enlightening caricature of what a Fusion member ‘is’. Maybe something about the kinds of cars they drive or the coffee they drink? Probably something about them being corporate cronies?
I’m not a member of Fusion (unless joining the Facebook group constitutes being a member), but I support their mission and would become a member if they require it in order to participate.
To each his own, I guess…