Just what would proposed eight per cent budget cut do to this city?
During budget discussions, Coun. Brian Swanson moved his annual cutthe -budget motion. This year he wanted a report on an eight per cent cut, up from a proposed five per cent cut last year. Swanson was surprised his motion passed. Previous motions like this failed. A week later, councillors expressed regrets but allowed the approved motion to stand. Coun. Heather Eby said she didn’t understand the motion. Duh! do the math! Eight per cent from proposed $48.4 million equals about $3.9 million.
Now city administration is working on this report. Perhaps knowing how deep eight per cent cuts would go will cause council to realize how harmful they would be to this community. Right off the bat, council could save $1.4 million by eliminating the regular bus service. That cut would terribly inconvenience those low income souls depending on bus service.
Some would have to quit their jobs and about 12 city employees would get pink slips.
Closing Mosaic Place and Yara Centre would save the city a nearly $600,000 subsidy. Forget that there would be no more indoor soccer, no walking track, no WHL hockey, no more concerts.
With cuts at $2 million, eliminating $2.1 million contributions to the self-funded equipment reserve for one year would do the job.
That would avoid closing the cultural centre, ($390,000 savings) and the library ($1.4 million savings).
Don’t expect any savings from cuts to reduce your property taxes. The savings likely would go to replacing infrastructure.
The City of Moose Jaw cut the budget five per cent by $1 million to $20 million about 27 yeas ago. Part of those cuts included eliminating the economic development officer. How many business ventures did Moose Jaw lose over the next 20 years because of insufficient follow-up to inquiries?
Also lost were annual garbage collection and city equipment used to pave and patch roads and clear snow from roads. Sure could use that equipment now. Once that cut was made taxpayers expected more of the same and got it. For the next eight years only three small tax increases around two per cent each were approved.
Moose Jaw lost executive city employees — seven in one year. Wage scales fell behind so badly the city couldn’t afford to hire topnotch administration. The city is still suffering from those cuts more than a generation ago but we’re talking about repeating the same mistake!