Katz says Selinger budget “fails” Winnipeg

Winnipeg’s mayor has come out swinging against the provincial government, saying the controversial sales tax hike planned by Greg Selinger’s NDP will do nothing to fix the capital city’s crumbling infrastructure as promised.

“We’ve lost any hope of receiving new, long term funding for our streets,” Mayor Sam Katz said at a news conference at City Hall in Winnipeg Wednesday.

“This budget is not about infrastructure, despite Premier Greg Selinger’s assurances that it is,” Katz said. “Unfortunately for residents and businesses in the City of Winnipeg, the new tax hike won’t make any difference to Winnipeg’s pothole-filled streets.”

The Selinger government announced in its April 16 budget it would hike the PST to 8% from its long-time level of 7%, and change the province’s balanced budget law to avoid a referendum on the controversial move. The NDP has said the tax hike is necessary to maintain current services, while still investing in infrastructure and flood-fighting measures. The province is also facing a half-billion dollar deficit.

Katz says little of the $277 million raised from the extra tax point will be used to fix Winnipeg’s notoriously pot holed and otherwise inadequate road system.

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“Winnipeg will receive only $7 million for roads,” Katz claims: a tiny fraction of the cash he says the city should be getting, seeing as 60% of the PST revenue will come from Winnipeggers.

The Selinger government says its budget doubles the spending on roads in Winnipeg.

Winnipeg and other municipalities have actually been calling for a sales tax hike for years, suggesting that the increase be earmarked strictly for municipal infrastructure. Katz says if that money were shared out to towns and cities on a per-capital basis, Winnipeg should be in line for a $152 million increase. In a news release today, the city says raising that much money on its own would require a 34% property tax increase.

Transcona councillor and deputy mayor Russ Wyatt also weighed in, saying “Every time we put forward funding solutions for the City of Winnipeg’s infrastructure crisis, the Province has attacked them, only later to adopt these very ideas and keep the cash to subsidize their debt-ridden budgets.