Limit Council's Spending Authority - Need for Referendums

It was clear in the debate on 14 March that there is a strong desire by a small special interest group to build a new Art Gallery that could cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars.

We no longer have a democracy when a small group of residents can use their social and financial power to persuade councilors to spend millions of tax dollars on any project, especially if that project is not valued by the vast majority of taxpayers.

Council has already commit $30,000 in studies to support this agenda and given that the last study was titled; "Pre-feasibility Study" we know that there will be at the very least one more study before they move forward on this $30 million project.

To avoid such distortions of democracy Council’s authority to commit tax dollars needs to be limited. I suggest that that a $5 million limit on any one project should be sufficient. All projects requiring the commitment of tax dollars beyond $5 million need to be put directly to the taxpayers through a referendum.