Civic departments told to ‘tighten the belts’
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/01/2017 (3499 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Departments throughout city hall have been told to “tighten the belts” to deal with a $9.5-million shortfall in the 2017 budget.
Finance committee chairman Coun. Scott Gillingham said the city has an imposing double duty to do in the weeks ahead — balance the 2016 budget and to make up the expected $9.5-million that was built into the 2017 budget,
“Already theres’s been instruction through administration to all departments to really tighten the belts and to look at any discretionary spending, to put a hold on that,” Gillingham (St. James-Brooklands-Weston) told reporters following Monday’s finance committee meeting.
The costs of digging out from under the December snowstorms wiped out an expected $9.5-million surplus, funds that were to be used to help balance the 2017 budget.
Instead of a surplus, officials told the finance committee the city is looking at a year-end deficit of $6.2 million.
Gillingham said it’s possible the shortfall won’t be as bad – department financial situations for 2016 won’t be finalized until February — but the city has a provision to dip into its financial stabilization reserve account to make up the difference.
The city’s more difficult task is finding $9.5 million, which is the equivalent of a nearly two per cent property tax increase. Gillingham said it won’t be easy.
“We know the administration has put out the instruction to the departments,” Gillingham said. “It’s too soon to tell how each department is going to respond.”
aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca
