Feb 10, 2007 04:30 AM John Spears Jim Byers city hall bureau http://www.thestar.com/News/article/180335
After months of bewailing its financial plight, the City of Toronto proposes spending $6.2 million on City Hall renovations to create new committee rooms, build a media studio and consolidate Mayor David Miller's staff in offices overlooking Nathan Phillips Square. The previously undisclosed renovations showed up in the fine print of the city's capital budget, released Thursday.
Councillor David Shiner – who will be shifted from his office to make room for the mayor's staff – said the spending undercuts the city's argument that it needs more funding. "We're telling the provincial and federal government that we can't afford to maintain the infrastructure of the City of Toronto, and yet we have almost $7 million for renovations to the mayor's office, and to add a couple of committee rooms," said Shiner (Ward 24, Willowdale). "How can we go to the province and say we need help, and how can we go to the feds and say we need help, when we're renovating our house for what seems to be unnecessary work?" The renovations have never shown up in the city's five-year capital budget plan, he said, yet the spending will occur over the next two years.
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Don Quixote Note: Remember the $650,000 Roundabout that never appeared in any budget or five year plan but was magically built using the surplus funds (or over taxation) of the prior year. This is why it is important to make a budget as lean as possible. Municipal Councils and their staff will always find a way to spend excess money that you leave in their hands.
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