City Budget Process

Mike O'Shaughnessy Dept: By trough, I mean a meeting of the city budget process. Since city hall hasn't had any formal procedure to review grants for more than a decade, most requests for new grant funding are now "referred to the budget process.", according to Winnipeg Free Press. How does the city pay for this new spending? The usual answer in the budget resolution is a dull phrase: "offset by corporate accounts." That's insider-speak for "dip into one of the city's hidden slush funds." In past years, the top-ups were expensive enough that on the initiative of former councillor Mike O'Shaughnessy, the budget team actually held back cash in anticipation of these amendments. It's unclear if this thoughtful practice is still observed and if you're looking for free money, mark your calendar for mid-March. To collect your cash, it helps to have control of a non-profit group. You'll also need to be willing to say a few words when you belly up to the trough. In practice, this means you should book yourself to speak at a special meeting of the mayor's cabinet, usually held a week before council votes on the budget. A day or so later, politicians will reappear and mysteriously recommend adding thousands -- or even hundreds of thousands -- in grants and other expenditures to the budget. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.