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Mayor Sam Katz met last week with the Winnipeg Sun’s editorial board, discussing everything from photo radar to a police helicopter to funding for renovations to Canad Inns Stadium, all of which were the subject of Sun stories in recent days.
A collection of Katz’s thoughts on some other matters discussed during that same meeting:
Property taxes:
— “You can’t keep property taxes frozen forever. Is (lifting the freeze) a possibility? Yes, but I’m definitely not there at this stage of the game.”
— “The City of Winnipeg is too dependent on property taxes.”
— “There are many sources of revenue. There are user fees. To me that might be a fairer way. You use you pay, you don’t use, you don’t pay.”
— “A 1% increase in property taxes gets you $4.5 million. If you get one point of the PST, it’s $110 to $130 million. You can see they’re night and day.”
On changing the way the city accesses money from the province:
— “I think grants are silly. When you’re trying to teach your eight-year-old responsibility about money, allowances are wonderful. But saying here’s some money — be a good boy and there will be more, or giving you money so there’s a photo op, that stuff to me is nonsense.”
— “I think there should have been a greater commitment to the City of Winnipeg. I understand they had other problems to solve, but often they solved them by throwing money at them, and that’s a short-term solution. Figure out where your priorities are and that’s where you put your money.”
On finding efficiencies at city hall:
— “I personally believe we can be more efficient and save money at city hall … I think there’s a lot of duplicating. There’s definitely room in management (for job reductions).”
On running for mayor again in 2010:
— “Bottom line, I have every intention of running.”
On the Canadian Museum for Human Rights requesting more money for construction costs from the city:
— “They definitely asked for more money. I think the City of Winnipeg has made a significant contribution and my answer to date has been between our cash contribution and our services in kind, it was about $20 million. That’s a significant contribution to a significant project. I basically told them they should continue to go out there and find private sector money.”
On the possible return of the NHL:
— “I don’t know of anyone who is genuinely working on trying to get an NHL team in Winnipeg.”
— “It should be private sector-driven. If there are members of the private sector who want to bring an NHL team to Winnipeg I’d be one of the first ones to buy season tickets.”
On his legacy:
— “My legacy is Ava and Kiera Katz. My children are my legacy. And maybe the ballpark in my private sector life … (As for public legacy) what I want to see is a city that functions well and spends taxpayers’ dollars wisely.”
On his first meeting with new Premier Greg Selinger:
— “We had a very positive conversation and I think he and I will have a very good relationship. We’re both pretty straightforward guys who put it on the table. We were supposed to have a half-four meeting and it turned into an hour.”
On downtown development:
— “I’d love to take a two- or three-block area, start from scratch and do it the way it needs to be done.”
http://www.winnipegsun.com/news/winnipeg/2009/10/31/11592396.html
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