City council listened to light industrial business owners Monday night and reversed its support of the hugely unpopular proposed tax rate hike just in the nick of time.
It's an astonishing turn of events because the city has only four days to pass the budget.
But a few brave people in the council chambers decided to scrap the committee recommendation after hearing directly from employers, some of whom say they may not survive the hit. And when employers fall, so do their employees.
But it was only by the skin of their teeth that the sector won its protest - if Coun. Murry Krause, chairperson for the committee that recommended the tax hike, hadn't been absent, light industrial business owners may very well have been out of luck.
The mayor was among those unswayed by the protest, saying people will complain no matter what. "Welcome to local government," he said.
Granted it was 1:30 a.m., which may explain his weary tone, but if the mayor is ready to dismiss complaints of this magnitude and not reconsider the impact of massive increases these businesses will face, maybe he's become a little too jaded. Not a politically shrewd move to essentially call your electorate a bunch of whiners.
Municipal staff has the unenviable job of coming up with a taxation plan to meet the city's hefty costs, but disproportionately burdening one sector of the taxpaying public is not the way to go.
Last year, after Coun. Cameron Stoltz set out a challenge to come up with better ideas, The Citizen and the Canadian Federation of Independent Business collaborated to provide suggestions on cutting municipal costs - were any of these implemented before taxes were once again hiked this year?
To recap, we suggested bringing the city salaries in line with the private sector instead of the average 35 per cent more they currently enjoy. To date we've heard of no such reductions.
Then there was contracting out work to receive better service at a reduced cost - granted CUPE might have a word or two to say about that.
Than there are public/private partnerships - these may be under negotiation, but we haven't heard of any new initiatives since May of 2010.
And the selling of surplus land like the PG Golf Course, Civic Centre and CN Centre has yet to be achieved.
Ah, here's one suggestion that was implemented: shift the cost of public services and facilities to users.
Increases were applied on a wide gamut, from water and sewer utility rates to Aquatic Centre admission - with our apologies to users. But some may be grateful to hear our suggested highway tollbooths weren't adopted.
Back to present day, after this latest twist in the budget debate, we're left asking, did this have to happen at the 11th hour?
Why did this issue blindside elected officials whose job it is to listen to the people?
For months, locals have been crying foul over this year's over-the-top property assessments - loudest in the room were residential owners, but it hit light industrial properties too.
It is due to these very assessments that the tax increase on the city's 67 light industrial sites was set to rise by an average of 37 per cent.
Keep in mind that's the average - some businesses would've been slammed with outrageous increases.
Take one particular shop as an example: according to the city's light industrial property tax impact study, PBLP Holdings Ltd.'s assessment increased to the tune of $2.5 million dollars, resulting in a crackpot 75 per cent tax hike on the property. That's a leap from $171,000 to just about $300,000 a year in taxes.
Figures like these should've been more than a hint - it should've been a neon sign that the proposed hike combined with property assessments would result in figures that are completely out of whack.
Instead business owners had to loudly proclaim that this hit on the bottom line, along with an already precarious economic situation, could sound the death knell for employers.
Yes it took a protest to be heard, but take heart Prince George, this time your elected representatives listened... well some of them anyway.
