To the editor
At last week's budget meeting I brought up the fact that I felt the words "budget reduction" were not accurate in view of the fact the materials we had received used the more telling word "increase" in numerous places.
I am concerned that council can be accused of "unfair spinning" to make it seem like taxes will go down.
The budget process seemed more confusing to many by frequent interchanging of the words "tax levy" and "tax rate". The additions of hikes in water, user fees, a large number of new staff and other charges will only add to the feelings of dismay by our residents.
I had hoped by bringing this to the attention of Council that you would instruct our media division to rewrite to more accurately reflect the situation.
Indeed, every budget process in almost every municipality starts with an inflated wish list so that elected representatives whittle down the initial ask to something more reasonable.
To state that there is any kind of reduction in the budget usually implies a year-to-year change.
Therefore our informational release to the public should reflect a comparison from 2013 to 2014, not from January to February.
We have the trust of the community and thus our standard must be the highest as opposed to being media manipulators.
Thank you for your consideration of this in instructing our public affairs department to clearly indicate the result of Council's decisions in our communications and publications.
Coun. Ken Boshcoff,
Thunder Bay
