{"id":16778,"date":"2016-01-27T16:27:50","date_gmt":"2016-01-27T21:27:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2.westmount.org\/en\/?p=16778"},"modified":"2016-01-27T16:33:03","modified_gmt":"2016-01-27T21:33:03","slug":"mayors-letter-chock-full-of-good-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.westmount.org\/en\/mayors-letter-chock-full-of-good-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Mayor’s Letter: chock-full of good news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mayor Peter F. Trent on January 28, 2016.<\/p>\n

For the first time since I started writing a yearly tax letter \u2013 and that was in 1992 \u2013 this one has been an undiluted pleasure to write. This is because it is chock-full of good-news items, to wit:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. On average, your 2016 taxes are frozen. The last time that happened was in 1999.<\/li>\n
  2. In spite of this tax freeze, budgeted capital spending is up by 18% (and 50% over what we actually spent in 2015). The roads budget is nearly three times what we spent in 2015.<\/li>\n
  3. By the end of 2016, thanks to past surpluses, we will have no net debt.* In other words, we will have enough funds to pay off all debt and other liabilities as they come due.<\/li>\n
  4. From now on, we will not have to resort to borrowing for regular capital spending. 5. Barring unforeseen events, we expect to continue to keep the tax bill in check next year.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n