Opinion: Vote NO on Proposition 5

Vancouver mayoral candidate Justin Forsman urges voters to reject Proposition 5, calling it a permanent tax increase that fuels wasteful spending rather than true public safety. Image courtesy Justin Forsman

Vancouver mayoral candidate Justin Forsman suggests voters ‘stop the lies, stop the abuse, stop the endless tax schemes’

Justin Forsman
Vancouver mayoral candidate

Vancouver voters are once again being misled. Proposition 5 is not about safety, it is about an endless money supply and lack of oversight. City Hall wants a permanent, compounding tax hike that grows every year, never ending. They want a blank check from families already crushed by inflation and skyrocketing costs of living. People who are already maxed out on their credit cards. Families that have to weigh paying bills vs. having food on the table for supper.

The same politicians who preach about priorities are the very ones wasting millions of your tax dollars on projects nobody asked for. Road diets, bloated contracts, flashy pet programs, endless studies that go nowhere, all while roads collapse, homelessness explodes, and neighborhoods grow less safe. The money was there, they just refused to spend it where it mattered the most. The issue we face is not a revenue problem, It is one of reckless spending at the tax payers expense.

They claim that Proposition 5 will only cost a cup of coffee a month. They mock us by trivializing a permanent, compounding tax that will never go away. A cup of coffee is a choice. These taxes will not be. This levy is designed to grow every single year until families can no longer afford to stay in their own homes and have no choice but to sell and flee this state.

Even worse, Proposition 5 is not a real safety plan. It hires more officers while ignoring the courts, prosecutors, and jails needed to deliver justice. The result will be a revolving door of arrests without convictions, clogged dockets, and criminals dumped back into your neighborhoods. That is not protection. That is chaos.

Meanwhile, the mayor and city council boast that public services are their top priority. Polling shows the community says the same. Yet if public safety was truly a priority, it would come first in the budget, not last. It would not take another permanent tax to fund the most basic duty of government.

Last year voters said no to Proposition 4. Now the cities come back with another version, smaller in size but identical in purpose. They did not listen to you then, and they are not listening now. They think if they push hard enough, you will cave.

And the abuse will not stop with Proposition 5. City leaders are already planning to chase a state grant that requires more local taxes. They are even preparing to layer on an additional public safety sales tax next. They are stacking taxes one on top of another until families break. Proposition 5 is only just the beginning.

This is what failed leadership looks like. Broken promises. Wasted millions. Endless taxation. As they treat us taxpayers like an ATM machine, all the while families tighten their belts and neighborhoods fall apart.

They will not be satisfied with your very last dollar. They will tax you out of your home if that is what it takes to keep feeding their habit for more spending. Governments do not create, they steal. The power to tax is the ultimate power to destroy.

Proposition 5 is not about keeping you safe. It is about keeping their spending spree alive. Do not reward abuse and mismanagement. Do not sign them over a blank check.

Vote NO on Proposition 5. Send City Hall the message loud and clear they cannot ignore. And while we’re at it … Vote them all OUT November 4th.

Justin Forsman is the chair of the Opposition Committee to Proposition 5.