Mayor chooses not to support budget in Standing Committee

By Pepper Parr

December 2, 2021

BURLINGTON, ON

 

A council Standing Committee completed their review of the 2022 budget Staff submitted and did manage to slim it down from 5.45% over last year to a 4.95% increase over last year.

Mayor Marianne Meed Ward – looking for a way to get a better budget number – 2022 is an election year.

But the Mayor isn’t happy and said she would not support the budget at this point. Ward 4 Councillor Shawna Stolte took the same position while Councillor Sharman said he was Ok with the increase – saw it as responsible.

Councillor Bentivegna was disappointed that most of his change suggestions didn’t win the support he needed but he was going to live with what was on the table.

Councillor Kearns was impressed with the Committee’s fiscal prudence and Councillor Galbraith was pleased that Council chose to rip the band aid off and put up with the immediate pain rather than continue to kick the can down the path and let a future council deal with the problems.

Ward 5 Councillor Paul Sharman

And problems there were – mostly on the Staffing side with some members of Council wanting to limit salary increase while others wanted to reduce staff.

There was a lot of juggling numbers around; taking dollars from the Queensway area Park and letting the downtown Dog Off leach Park group use the funds so they could get their initiative moving forward.

The only true winner was ward 5 Councillor Paul Sharman who convinced council to fund the paving of a path in Mohawk Park that serves two schools and a church.  He was ready to approve the budget.

The Mayor has a reputation staked on a lower tax increase – she has about ten days to pull a couple of rabbits out of a hat.

The difficulty appears to be that the Standing Committee may not be able to send a recommendation to Council that approves a budget.  That creates a very tricky procedural problem.

It all comes before Council on December 14th.

No wonder he was so happy.

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