Thunder Bay council ratifies city budget with 3.18% tax hike
After five hours of intense debate, city councillors in Thunder Bay ratified the 2015 municipal budget, early Tuesday morning.
Many councillors proposed amendments to bring the tax hike lower than the 3.18 per cent council finally agreed upon.
Coun. Trevor Giertuga was not happy with how ad hoc some of the cuts were.
"I mean, it's like me saying, I want to take $20,000 out of clean, green and beautiful, but I don't know what it's going to do, what it's going to affect,” he said.
“We decide if we have programs, and we decide if we're going to fund them or not."
One $12,000 cut, proposed by Coun. Rebecca Johnson, was having councillors bring their own dinners to in-camera meetings.
That got Keith Hobbs going.
"And, if you're going to begrudge us a meal, um, I'm sorry, like that's just over the top,” he said.
“With all due respect Coun. Johnson, whether you take a brown bag or not, I don't have time."
Another proposal made by Coun. Linda Rydholm to fund the rest of the tax increase from city reserve funds didn't sit well with Coun. Iain Angus.
“I just think it would be very short-sighted to arbitrarily take just under $2 million out of our savings account to be politically pleasing to some of the electorate,” he said.
One item that did pass was to reduce the fleet budget by $200,000. Specifics on how this reduction will play out for administration wasn't clear.
After the long night was over, Hobbs affirmed council’s work.
"We've done a damn good job,” he said. "I really don't give a damn because we've done a damn good job."