Pay hikes hard to accept for overcharged taxpayers

Beaconsfield city council — with one dissenting member — plans to award itself a pay hike when it was explained to them that they make slightly less than the administrators of other

similarly sized cities make for its

management.

Mayor Bob Benedetti’s salary will climb from $24,000 to $30,000, while councillors, who made $8,191, will now receive $10,000. The reason they gave for this self-generosity? Mayors and councillors in other, similarly sized towns make more, and thus they should, as well.

They might have a hard time explaining that to the fixed-income grandmother whose Beaconsfield home cost her an extra $700 in property taxes last year. They will also have a hard time explaining that to the soccer association, that must now up registration costs for players in order to absorb the user fees the city is now charging them.

Mind you, the real culprit behind the property-tax hikes remains the Quebec government.

First, the Parti Québécois forced the Montreal mega-city mergers with no economies of scale in sight.

Then, Jean Charest half-kept his promise to allow voters a chance to de-merge from the mega-city. The Liberals set up the current undemocratic agglomeration system that allows the mayor of Montreal to spend the coffers of the majority of tax dollars collected from reconstituted municipalities at will and without any real input from West Island mayors.

Kudos to councillor David Pollock who voted against the increase on principle, saying an increase in councillor remuneration couldn’t be justified given the added costs they are facing from the agglomeration council.

Maybe Beaconsfield council should pull their pay raise off the table considering the hammering its taxpayers took last year. Perhaps a symbolic gesture at best since the funds saved won’t make a significant dent in the budget, but at least Beaconsfield residents will know at least one level of government is listening.