Regional Budget

[jeffster]

Yes, council has used this boogieman for years.

But I'd have much more respect for my council if they fought and lost, rather than giving up and voting FOR a budget they claim to disagree with.

But even more, if they really feel the system is problematic, they actually have to vote against the budget in order to change anything, even the system. Right now, they are voting for it, if they went to the province and said "hey, this process doesn't work" the province would say..."why did you vote for it then?"

I suspect the REAL reason is that if they voted against it, even if a majority voted against it, they would lose at arbitration because certain councillors would go and testify FOR an infinitely bloating police budget. We have some hardcore pro-police neocons on council.

Frankly, the police budget is quickly becoming my second biggest source of anger in the budget. The irony is people who pretend to be fiscally conservatives never object..."fiscal conservatism" might as well be a word in new speak.

Yes. To clarify, I think that the region really should engage in this fight. I just want to point out that it's actually hard.

I have to wonder, with 10 officers being voted out of the schools, shouldn't this save some money? I am not sure how much these officers make, but I am guessing it's close to $100K + benefits (OMERS, health, CPP, EI, coffee and donut money, etc). That should be close to $1.3M.

Though that doesn't seem like a lot, based on a close to a quarter billion dollar budget.