Unpredictable. Unfocused. Just like life.

Fighting for Taxpayers has a series of posts about municipal property taxes. They make an excellent point: Budgeting in the real world is about limitations. No one creates a household budget with new vehicles, vacations and maid service and then determines what salary their employer must pay them each year to make it all work. Taxpaying households have a limited budget to work with each year, and so should municipal governments. Other levels of government are giving tax breaks. Why not here?

Waterloo, where I liveis going to limit the property tax increase to only 3.61% this year, as if they were doing citizens some great favor, even though the rate of inflation is only 2.5%. They also approved an increase of 14% in water and sewer rates. This after an increase of almost 25% in the past four years.

Kitchener, the next town over, is planning a 6.4% increase.

These increases are calculated on top of increased property assessments, providing a windfall for these cities. Yet rather than try to live within their means they constantly tax and spend more, building new buildings rather than maintaining existing infrastructure. Local councils complain that to maintain infrastructure would require them to raise taxes, conveniently forgetting the millions in funding from federal gas taxes, $9 million in 2006 alone.Where has that money gone?

When will local politicians consider living within their means, instead of drawing up wishlists and giving in to every special interest group, then telling citizens that they'll just have to cough up more?

I hear constantly that our cities must grow and prosper, but this won't mean a thing if the existing roads and bridges crumble. And a start would be taking the millions we are already getting to maintain infrastructure and actually spend it to maintain infrastructure.

Maybe it's time for a Proposition 2.5. Any increase in property taxes beyond 2.5% would required approval by referendum. That might keep politicians under control since they seem unwilling or unable to do so themselves.