It’s a rare day that I agree with Councillor Jenny Gerbasi, but she’s completely correct in criticizing the sloppy job the City is doing with this year’s operating budget.
I did notice the 2008-2010 Preliminary Operating Budget – Service Based View on the City website late last week, but I assumed they were just slow to post it online, not that it was only released on Thursday.
Considering this document actually has some meaningful detail in it regarding service reductions, it clearly should have been in the hands of Councillors and the public weeks ago, not just a few days before Council votes on the budget.
And what of those budget cuts? Well, after proclaiming last year that he was “committed to building a cleaner, greener Winnipeg” including more money for grass cutting, tree planting, litter collection, street cleaning and graffiti removal, the Mayor’s budget this year includes the following reductions according to the Winnipeg Sun:
- Park grass maintenance — $2.2 million cut from $8.2 million
- Tree-planting — $1.2 million cut from $2.5 million
- Litter collection and street cleaning — $800,000 cut
- Graffiti removal — $235,000 cut
So much for that “clean and green” experiment.
This year’s budget also apparently includes a $900,000 cut to crime prevention initiatives, which is a bit surprising considering all the anti-crime talk coming from City Hall in recent months.
All of this points to a significant problem at City Hall: the Mayor seems to have a multiple-personality disorder.
At various points, Katz has tried to position himself as the pro-business mayor, the effective manager mayor, the recreation mayor, the clean and green mayor, the law and order mayor, the transit mayor, the mosquito mayor, and probably a dozen more personas.
Now, I’m sure he’d say, “I was elected to be the Mayor for all Winnipeggers,” or something like that. The problem is, in trying to serve all constituencies, he’s effectively served none.
Seriously Sam, you’ve had nearly four years to figure out what your priorities are, and what you think needs to be done to turn Winnipeg into this “City of Opportunity” you like to talk about. You need to focus your attention, find a way to articulate your vision for the city’s future, and ensure that vision is reflected in every policy, budget and announcement you bring forward.
Or you can continue down the same path you’ve been traveling, and the persona you’ll be remembered best for is: caretaker mayor.
I think Sam is just getting bad advice from his bureaucracy. Look no further than what the Forks North Portage Partnership and Winnipeg Parking Authority are saying about de-listing from heritage status the Grain Exchange Annex (153 Lombard Ave.). From Rise and Sprawl:
http://riseandsprawl.blogspot.com/2008/03/when-it-rains.html
Take heart. I hear that the Manitoba Hotel Association has truly identified the cash grab that the city will get from a 5% hotel tax. Get this, when the city said they needed $4.5 million they said it would take 5%. Seems that the MHA has done its homework and found out that a 5% hotel tax in 2008 will raise $8 million. Looks like they really only need a tax of 3%. So where’s that extra money going?
Good points, Frogger.
The one consistent priority has been freezing property taxes. Everything else seems like seat of the pants policy making at times.
I predict next year property taxes are going up.