Comment 56439

By goin'downtown (registered) | Posted January 14, 2011 at 21:23:49

Yes, A Smith, it would appear that a savings of $230 per household within the City of Hamilton would balance (for lack of a better word) our local economy, but only if 50% or more of that $115,000,000 was spent within the City of Hamilton (not outside of our borders, not on travel, not on internet purchases, not on investments, etc.). No idea how that would be patrolled. Please provide details as to how you would ensure that these savings would be realized, and what services would be axed. BTW, at a 2010 budget public meeting I attended, I heard Rob Rossini allude to our social services case load as being the primary reason for the state of Hamilton’s budget problems (again, I would request that you begin a separate article, please).

In your statistics and data, do you have an average $$ that Canadian municipalities allot to their culture and recreation budgets, per capita? Do you have a $$ that another city, comparable to Hamilton (no, not in Switzerland), successfully spends on their culture and recreation?

Would you live in Hamilton if there were no parks? No pools? No rinks? No festivals? No theatre? No conservation lands? Et al? Or would you live in Hamilton if there were a couple of each, but there was a $20-30 fee per use for an allotted period of time? $20 to walk the dog in the park. $25 per game of shinny. $25 to cool off in the summer. $30 to see an impassioned folk singer, in the park. $40 ($20 X 2) to walk along the beach with a sweetheart. $150 to see an international musical artist, nose bleed seats. Etc., etc., etc. Would you pay? Leave? Stay and use none of those services? Just wondering. What do you think the other 500,000-odd people with the COH would do?

As far as the credit card analogy goes, the people that I hand my credit card (taxes) to at City Hall are elected officials, determined by the only democratic process that we currently have in place (again, separate article, please), to fulfill their responsibilities. Not strangers.

There's a lot of posts on RTH, so perhaps I'm asking you something that you've already answered prior to your questions being directed at me, but - what do you propose the City do right now in regards to this specific issue at hand within this thread, i.e. the Pan Am Games currently awarded to Hamilton, and the IWS proposal that Council has approved to be explored? And what are your economic forecasts (business retention, business expansion, business attraction, population) upon implementation of your suggestions, and in 10-year increments for the next, say, 50-70 years?

I don’t disagree with your assertions, I’m just confused as to why you are asking me the rhetorical questions and not answering them yourself or at least offering ideas. Amid a post on the current status of the Pan Am Games bid.

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