When Mayor Leavitt said the city can pay for light rail (“Leavitt: City can pay for light rail,” Aug. 22), he was speaking for himself and not the majority of citizens. It appears that our young mayor needs to learn a lot regarding expenditure of funds. Areas such as road improvements, additional police officers and firemen should be top priority.
In 1974, the population of Vancouver was approximately 38,000. The city council decided to start annexation of communities surrounding the city. The idea was to make more tax revenue available; however, the council overlooked the fact that additional services for the annexed communities would also require more funds. To offset the problem, the city has raised taxes almost annually for the past 39 years, but other projects appear to have taken precedence over infrastructure and community safety.
We need an overall change in our mayor and current council member positions 1 and 3 to address the true needs of the city. It’s time to tackle the current and continuing problems in Vancouver and not use tax money to provide or support light rail, now or in the near future.
Don Yingling
VANCOUVER