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March 31, 2004
CITY BUDGET
Councillors gave initial approval to the expressway portion of the budget last Friday. However, this decision still requires City Council ratification. April 14 is the next scheduled meeting of the Council. It's possible that the decision will take place later, because meetings on the budget are already scheduled through until April 15.
 Four councillors voted against the expressway approval. They were Dave Braden, Andrea Horwath, Margaret McCarthy and Brian McHattie. Russ Powers also spoke against the project but was not present for the vote.
Ten councillors including Mayor DiIanni voted for the expressway despite dire warnings from City financial staff about the crisis in funding for capital infrastructure. The staff report pointed out that funding for repair and replacement of basic infrastructure will fall from $50 million this year to $8.5 million next year and $12.5 million in 2006. Council decided to borrow $15 million from the Hamilton Future Fund to get through this year's capital budget crisis, but as the report noted, this revised budget "essentially has delayed by one year, the capital affordability problems" previously identified.
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