Objection/comment on revised proposed Cape Town budget for 2025
From "Comment on the City’s amended draft budget for 2025-2026"
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Although according to the calculator, my revised rates is now reflecting an increase of 18% vs 30%, this is still not insignificant, especially given that there will be other increases NOT reflected in the calculator (e.g. we are part of a Improvement District). Regardless, I still not likely to get a salary increase anywhere near this large in the next year (or 10), so I am not sure where the extra money will come from, especially given the rate of inflation in other areas such as transport and groceries.
I also believe that there should be some kind of mechanism built in to encourage people to minimize their usage of scarce resources like water and electricity, so the "flat connection fee" for these should potentially be reconsidered. I understand the intention is to subsidise other, poorer areas but the assumption that because someone lives in a relatively valuable property means they automatically have extra disposable income to accommodate significant increases such as these is flawed. Could we not rather focus on garnering extra income from those who have secondary residences that are used to generate an income e.g. AirBnBs?
