Core Services First: The Taxpayer Affordability Rule
Before You Raise Taxes, Prove We Can Pay
Core Services First: Why Council Should Order a CSR and Tie Taxes to Affordability!
If city council is going to keep raising property taxes, residents deserve two things before the next hike hits the mailbox:
a clear, independent look at what City Hall actually does — and what it should be doing, and
a hard reality check on what taxpayers can realistically afford.
That’s exactly what a Core Services Review (CSR) and a Taxpayer Affordability Policy deliver.
What a Core Services Review actually does
A CSR is not a “study for the shelf.” Done right, it’s a disciplined audit of the city’s operations that answers basic questions council should already be able to answer:
What are our core services (public safety, roads, water, sewer, parks basics)?
What are the non-core add-ons that keep expanding budgets?
What are we spending, what are we getting, and where is performance slipping?
Where are costs rising faster than the community’s ability to pay?
The key benefit is simple: it replaces vibes and talking points with numbers and priorities.
Why a CSR matters right now
When budgets are built on “last year plus more,” spending quietly becomes automatic — and tax increases become routine.
A CSR forces a reset:
stop doing low-value work,
fix duplicated processes,
measure productivity and outcomes,
rebuild budgets from purpose, not habit.
Even small efficiency wins, repeated across departments, can compound into real savings over time — the kind that prevents “another 10%” from becoming normal.
The missing rule: affordability
Here’s the problem with how tax increases are justified today: they’re often rationalized using assessed values — as if a higher paper value means you’re richer.
It doesn’t.
A home assessment isn’t a raise. It doesn’t pay the grocery bill. It doesn’t buy fuel. It doesn’t cover insurance. And for many households, it’s not even accessible unless they take on more debt or sell.
Taxes must be tied to income reality, not asset inflation.
What an affordability policy looks like
Council should adopt a policy that says, plainly:
No tax increase is approved without a published Taxpayer Affordability Study.
That study should be short, public, and updated annually. It should show:
local income trends (median household / working wages / fixed-income seniors),
inflation pressures that households actually face,
housing-cost burdens (mortgage/rent + utilities + insurance),
and what a proposed tax increase means in real dollars for typical households.
Then council can still choose to raise taxes — but they must do it honestly, with receipts.
The public benefit: trust and discipline
A CSR plus affordability policy does something City Hall desperately needs: it creates accountability that residents can understand.
Council can’t hide behind “best practices” and buzzwords.
Staff recommendations have to survive public scrutiny.
Spending is ranked by necessity, not momentum.
Residents can see exactly what they’re paying for — and what they’re not getting.
Bottom line
A Core Services Review is how council proves it’s running an efficient operation.
A Taxpayer Affordability Policy is how council proves it respects the people funding it.
If council can vote to spend, borrow, and expand — it can also adopt two basic standards:
1) Prove the spending is necessary.
2) Prove the community can afford it.
That’s not radical. That’s responsible government.
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