“My interest in the budget has been cut by 10 percent.”
The Toronto Police Services Board approved an increase of 6 million dollars in the 2012 budget after the mayor announced that he was ‘tired of all this math crap’. Councillor Michael Thompson, who had previously suggested that Chief Blair might lose his job if he didn’t come up with the requested budget cuts, tried to put a positive spin on the outcome. “Fortunately, math can be adjusted to serve political needs, much like religion. So sure, we’re going to be spending more money next year but if you ‘move the goalposts’ things are looking much better. Instead of basing the percentage cut on the 2011 budget, we based it on what the 2012 budget would have been after factoring in inflation and a wage hike. Granted, we still don’t meet the 10 percent goal but at least we aren’t spending more.” The councillor said he tried to explain this to the mayor but only received a blank stare in return.
Some city councillors have questioned the wisdom of an across the board 10 percent reduction in budgets. ”It doesn’t make sense” said Councillor Josh Matlow. “Where is he getting the 10 percent figure from? What the city should have done is gone through each department’s budget and determined on a case-by-case basis how much we could cut.” The mayor insists, though, that that’s exactly what they did. ”I know it seems far-fetched,” Mr. Ford admitted, “but after going through every department’s budget we determined that they could all be cut by exactly 10 percent. It’s completely ironic but it happens sometimes… like when it rains on your wedding day.” Despite the mayor’s reassurances and his tenuous, Alanis Morissette-like grasp of the meaning of the word ‘ironic’, many people seem to think that the number is completely arbitrary or, as Councillor Vaughan put it – “I think the mayor just pulled the figure out of his ass.”
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