$15M Contest

A Reader sent me a copy of this note from City Circuit, the Corporate Newsletter for the City of Windsor. In it, the CAO states:

"Administration has been charged to identify savings totalling $15 million from the operating budget."

Apparently there have been lots of meetings on how to achieve the reduction target. They have even asked the union executive to suggest ideas and to provide input. Hmmmmm, I wonder if reducing the number of union employees or reducing wages and benefits is part of that discussion.

I see that the Library Board is first off the mark to get everyone in the City upset so that its budget can't be cut by threatening to close libraries and to cut Sunday service. A smart political move if I ever saw one.

In any event, I wondered what that $15 million was to be used for. Maybe it might actually be used to reduce taxes. Ha ha ha ha that was a good joke!

My reader suggested a couple of uses for that money:

1. that amount is very close to the difference between the original cost of the arena and the $65 million cost now, oooops, I mean $64,921,387
2. the increased costs for the Tunnel Plaza improvement project

Well I started thinking about it and decided that perhaps you too had some suggestions about what all that money burning a hole in the City's pockets could be used for. How about these ideas:

1. To encourage the University to move their Engineering complex downtown or the law and music schools instead.
2. To fill up the engineered slope
3. To pay for a new parking lot for all of the excess vehicles that will not fit in to the 1900 parking spaces at the East End arena
4. To pay for all of the consultants hired to do things that city staff are quite capable of doing
5. To pay for streetscaping
6. To pay for City documents to be translated from English into French and now Spanish
7. To continue sponsoring events in Detroit to enhance Windsor's reputation, provided that Roger Penske is involved

Well, you get my drift. Let's see what ideas you can come up with.