Spending is being slashed from the city of Vernon budget---but one councillor is looking for more. Council has approved over 700-thousand in cost cutting as part of lowering the tax hike to 0.21 percent. No jobs are being lost, but some services are being curtailed such as bylaw coverage and access to the RCMP detachment. While some on council are content with the small tax increase, Councillor Bob Spiers feels there's still more to trim. "The only way we are going to get to a figure that would make me happy is if we did a complete service review and decide how we should go ahead with all our services in the future, how we should deliver them." Mayor Wayne Lippert calls it a lean budget, to fit the tough times. "It's like the old saying, when you're at home and finances are tight, eat hamburger.When times are good, you eat steak, so we're eating some hamburger right now." RCMP Superintendent Reg Burgess says they will have to maintain their billing at 50 officers, which could make things like traffic enforcement difficult, with officers on sick leave or maternity. "It is going to make it tight for me to maintain all the service, especially the enhanced services we're doing but at this point I think we can do that." Burgess says the cuts also mean their detachment office hours will be reduced to 8:30 to 4:30, instead of having a person at the front desk until 8 at night. It will also bring reduced hours for bylaw enforcement. The plan also allows for putting over 800-thousand into reserves for vehicles, equipment and other items
1 comment:
Yeah, so when do we get our steak mayor?
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