Accountant John Shoemaker’s concerns about the growing population and the possibilities of increasing taxes in Westlock have prompted him to leap into municipal politics.
On Wednesday morning, Shoemaker has announced his 29-year relationship serving the Town of Westlock as an auditor was about to change after declaring he’s running for a seat on town council during the Oct. 21 municipal election.
“The biggest concern I have is population,” he said. “Once you get over 5,000 people, you have to start paying for the police and if Westlock population is say 5,010, it’s a $1 million increase.”
And to cover that shortfall will require a tax increase.
“I would estimate, site unseen, it would probably cost $1 million, so based on last year’s taxes, you’re looking at about a 15 per cent tax increase just to cover policing,” he said. “No additional benefit to the town or to the ratepayers.
“That’s a big concern.”
Shoemaker added the town shouldn’t cut employees because they’re usually the “biggest asset in any organization.”
“I can’t see how you’re going to be able to cut services by $1 million,” said Shoemaker. “There isn’t that much waste in any budget. There isn’t an awful lot you can do. You can look and see if there’s any areas you can cut, but you know, you can’t cut back employees — like say you’re going to take a 10 per cent wage cut or anything like that.
“I don’t think the previous council had a lot of waste. They weren’t frivolously spending. You need lighting, you need garbage collection, you need snow removal, water and sewer … you’ve gotta have all of these services. I don’t really think there’s a lot of waste in the budget.”
Although Shoemaker doesn’t have experience as a politician, he explained that after many years of doing audits for schools and municipalities across the region, making the leap into politics isn’t daunting.
“The one thing you find in any municipality is that your major source of income comes from taxes. I think the one thing we’re going to have to watch is that I know there’s a lot of people on fixed income,” he said. “So, I don’t take having to raise taxes lightly. I realize that if someone is making $30,000 a year they’re already paying the town $3,000 in taxes.
“That’s 10 per cent of their income for the year, so they really don’t want a tax increase.”
In regards to the ongoing amalgamation talk, he noted the are a lot of questions that will need to be answered in the coming months.
“If we get amalgamated with the county, I don’t know who would end up paying for the policing, or if we would just walk away and say we’re part of the county and handing in our keys … you know, that would be interesting,” said Shoemaker.
“How big of a board would there be? What happens to property taxes, the debt of the town … I would assume the debt would stay with the town, but again I don’t know that much about the amalgamation process.”