City Releases Proposed Operating Budget for 2015

The city sent out an e-mail this morning that said, "Proposed Operating Budget maintains existing service levels," but naturally, there's some fine print in that very specific statement. 

PRESS RELEASE - Public Invited to Discuss the Capital Budget

The city council has had budget pre-occupations since the beginning of the year, but now we're getting down into the meat of the matter with public delegations and hard decisions as Mayor Cam Guthrie and the new council look to pass their first capital and operating budgets. If you have strong thoughts about the city finances, this is your chance to make them known.

Budget 2015 Update - Opening Moves

The year started off with council already contentious about the budget process. Mayor Guthrie had announced his intention to bring a motion to the January 19 council meeting that would state that the city government should set itself the goal of not raising taxes anymore than the rate of inflation for the coming fiscal year. Of the seven councillors out of 12 that responded to the Guelph Tribune's request for comment, four were against the motion and three were against. Although the motion has since been delayed, some feel as though the mayor was going too far too soon.