Premier Smith not buying city’s claim of poverty
The premier is not buying the city hall line where they are so hard done by, so strapped for cash, so much the victim, checking the cupboard and finding it bare
It didn’t take long for Mayor Jyoti Gondek to hold out the beggar bowl.
Right after the UCP government of Premier Danielle Smith pulled a U-Turn and said they would keep putting dough into the city’s low-income transit pass, Gondek turned around and demanded more money from the Alberta taxpayer.
A lot more money.
“We still have a $311-million funding gap on all of the other pieces we have picked up that have been offloaded by the province.”
Calgary city council will chew over a report prepared by city hall brass pointing to the $311-million-a-year shortfall they claim has been caused by Smith and her government.
The city hall report says the Smith government is to blame for “significant fiscal challenges” at the place not-so-affectionately known as The Big Blue Playpen.
That nickname is not to be confused with Calgary’s new $5-million handle, Blue Sky City.
City hall higher-ups speak of a “strain” on the city while they are “grappling” with “added pressures” while figuring they are “financially prudent.”
Those supposed pressures they are wrestling obviously don’t include $237.7 million in surplus cash and $200 million in extra dough from the gouging franchise fees on Calgarians’ power bills, 220% higher fees than in Edmonton.
That doesn’t include XXXL reserve funds where the city hall crowd go to cut the huge cheques.
Friday morning and Premier Smith is in Calgary.
Smith is not buying the city hall line where they are so hard done by, so strapped for cash, so much the victim, checking the cupboard and finding it bare.
“We see this every year. They underestimate what their revenues are going to be and overestimate their expenses,” says the premier.
“They generate surpluses and then they put them into their surplus accounts and then they increase taxes.”
Bingo!
