Mat Siscoe adds another motion to freeze hiring wouldn't have saved much money
St. Catharines mayor says city council narrowly voted to stay within procedural rules when it rejected a bid to revisit the budget last week.
One motion was Councillor Joe Kushner's idea to freeze hiring, to deal with a 10-percent property tax hike.
There was also a motion from Mayor Mat Siscoe to look for savings, that was postponed due to more pressing legal matters. "A number of motions were raised.... 'Can we waive the rules, can we get rid of procedure and allow this to happen or that to happen?' But the things that were being asked didn't make sense in the context of what we were trying to accomplish."
Speaking to Councillor Kushner's motion, the Mayor says that would only save taxpayers $4, and taxpayers wouldn't even get that back.
"Because the municipalities are not able to rebate property taxes, that's not how the system works. So council made the decision, we've already had an additional discussion on the budget, we've chosen not to change it," he says.
The mayor adds not enough people realized it was only $4 savings.
He also says many people have spoken to him and understood what council did that night, even though they don't like the rate hike.
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