CambridgeToday received the following letter about the need to cut the 2025 regional budget.
I am writing on behalf of the Property Taxpayers Alliance (PTA) in response to the Nov. 27 article "Staff Cuts Under Consideration To Slash Region’s 2025 Budget."
The PTA would like to commend regional council for considering this option. Private sector growth has been the result of actual gains in productivity driving some degree of hiring. Public sector growth, which is significantly outstripping private sector growth, has been taking place in spite of very poor productivity and year over year hiring at two to three times population growth on a percentage basis. There’s serious disconnect here.
May I suggest regional council also consider a wage freeze for 2025. We all know there is a significant gap between municipal employee compensation and that of regional private sector property taxpayers having the same type jobs. And the gap keeps growing.
A case in point. In Cambridge it was decided to increase all non-union staff compensation in 2025 by the same percentage negotiated with their CUPE 1882 union workers in 2025.
Why?
This means all non-unionized Cambridge worker wages will increase by 3.3 per cent in 2025.
The cost of this arbitrary gift is a slap in the face of hard working property taxpayers who can at best expect an inflationary adjustment in 2025 of about two per cent. And the Cambridge municipal workers received an eight per cent increase in 2024 while inflation averaged 2.5 per cent. That’s an 11.6 per cent wage increase for Cambridge municipal workers over two years (2024 and 2025) while inflation will have increased by just 4.6 per cent.
How many of you readers are getting wage increases like this? Our property taxes are rising at two to three times inflation each year in large part to pay for these outrageous municipal wage increases.
We keep hearing there’s no more fat in the budget to cut. Don’t believe it! The region and its municipalities are drowning in our tax dollars, looking for new ways to spend them.
We’re sick to death of hearing the threat that services will have to be cut every time we question the need for two to three times inflation property tax increases.
It's time mayors, chairs and council members started working together across the region to keep the overall total tax bill increase to homeowners at or below inflation each year, because this is what our incomes are going up by. Any more erodes away our disposable incomes year after year and ultimately contributes to homelessness.
So please get busy with staff cuts and perhaps a little wage freeze for 2025 to boot. Lord knows most prirate sector property taxpayers have been down that road at least a few times before. And say NO to the additional $6.6 million regional staff requested for homelessness “if the money is to be used to hire more regional staff or to retain existing staff.”
To all property taxpayers - it is time to say enough is enough.
John B. Waylett
Chair & CEO
Property Taxpayers Alliance
Cambridge
