AmbrÖse Bierce: Loewen’s Tax Info Is Crap

By January 20, 2013Ambrose Bierce, Letters

By AmbrÖse Bierce. Last week Abbotsford Councillor Dave Loewen started a Twitter campaign to have taxpayers from other jurisdictions pay for the lack of infrastructure in Abbotsford.

When questioned on some of his claims, he sent a link to this Property Taxes and Competitiveness in British Columbia.

I’ve received a lot of correspondence this week about Councillor Loewen and his seeming inability to grasp either his role in ruining the finances of his friends’ and neighbours’ through the mismanagement of City finances or the point being made by his constituents when challenging him on his record.

It was perhaps put best in the following statement:

Councillor Dave Loewen

Councillor Dave Loewen

It is nice that Mr. Loewen is willing to share this information source with the world, in his traditional condescending manner. However, it is worthless for anything other than snowing the general populace when it is necessary to convince them that property taxes are justified. Part of the reason our taxes are as high as they are, is because they go to pay for the armies of bureaucrats that do nothing more than generate data like this. It is crap. It will not help us when we hit the “financial wall”, or walk over the “fiscal cliff”.

We need to look at our own context, and do what is right … for us … first.

Speaking with Mr. Loewen is fruitless. He does not listen, he does not debate. Every minute you spend talking to him is a minute lost, because you could be speaking to someone else who might actually consider your argument, learn from it, forward it to others who care, etc.

AmbrÖse Bierce

AmbrÖse

AmbrÖse Bierce is Today’s writer in residence who occasionally gives voice to the concerns of individual citizens and taxpayers who, for a variety of reasons, are unable or unwilling to take a public stand on issues of relevance to the rest of the community. Reasons may include possible loss of job, injury to their business, or any number of quite legitimate reasons to keep their mouths shut.

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