Councillors spend a million dollars a minute, for more than three hours

In a pre-holiday shopping spree lasting 203 minutes, Sault Ste. Marie City Council authorized $248 million dollars in municipal spending tonight as it approved its 2020 operating and capital budgets.

That will result in a 3.63 per cent levy increase, but just 1.47 per cent of that resulted from increased city spending.

The remaining 2.16 per cent is attributed to levy and local boards outside the city’s jurisdiction.

Traditionally, city staff submit a preliminary budget and then pare it down during budget deliberations.

But tonight, councillors did little cutting and a lot of adding - more than half a million dollars in additional spending - to the draft document.

A $400,000 windfall in the form of a special PUC dividend was applied to the city’s 2020 internal debt.

Local scofflaws will be pleased to learn that $126,500 slated for traffic cameras on Bay Street was removed from the capital budget.

Additional 2020 budget coverage will be posted on SooToday.