Quote:
Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame
Believe me, this is a much scaled-back budget from not just six months prior.
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Scaled back from what was suggested 6 months before, or scaled back in absolute terms. My guess is the're buying the cadillac instead of the bentley.
I do appreciate what you are trying to say and the way you're saying it but it doesn't jive with my experience. I've talked to a number of city managers and a few are fantastic. A few more are career bureaucrats with no perspective of life in the real world and no desire to hear it.
Without seeing the 2009-11 plans I'll wager the operating budget has more than doubled in 10 years to between 2 and 2.5 billion. At at most 50% of that growth will be on the items you mentioned - probably much less if you exclude transit. The rest on things that are mostly wants not needs.
If the city were honest and open they'd quit blaming the province, growth, the feds, or anyone handy for increased costs and simply say they want to expand programs and services and don't think anything can/should be done by the private sector. List them off, total them up, and let calgarians decide.
Instead they build in 10, 20 or 30 million of extras into the budget each year and then say they need tax hikes to fund 20 mil for new police and fire. Its dishonest.