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Continued from page I remaining debt, said luhn Morrison the director of revenue for the city. As tor the lost revenue from the rent, the city has already made up for it, hound. " Ihey paid a partial amount of the rent payments." Morrison said. “Those payments were provided for and held ah potential bad debt." Continued from page I P ran said. "lt speaks volumes about the collaboration of staff and council and (the ability to! work together for the benefitof the taxpayer." - .. - m 'nd, lost revenues will be taken from the city's special reserve for bad debts, he added. The new lease Sees the KWSC. pay ing for more of the services. ___ Budget chai'r 'Coun. Jan d'Ailly agreed. "l think we've made a good step forward," he said. Staff had originally proposed an infrastructure levy amounting to a one or two per cent tax in order to create a fund for the city's aging roads and facil- Ines. Council voted against that proposal and sent the matter back to staff while approving the rest ff, the budget, . 'whefcity staff hroughlga second proposal back two weeks ago, council again rejected _it. The second recommendation called for cutting new positions while council was looking more for places where sav- ings could me made, said Karen liskens, director of budgets and finam cial planning. One staff concern that was on the chopping block that wasn't cut was a health and safety compliance officer. But in order to keep that position, the cost was moved from 2009 into 2008 to balance the expenses, Eskens said. "This time around we looked at meeting council's priorities," she said. "Staff felt ihat was an important posit)on," she added _ _ The one advantage that staff had in finding $500,000 in savings was that they could draw from three different fiscal years. That allowed them to delay or fast track some positions, like the health and safety officer, in order to create room in each year's finances. But that doesn't rhean that the costs for 2008 and 2009 are set in stone, Mclean said. Lost revenues will be taken from reserves The $500,000 is only a start and won't cover a huge deficit in infrastruc- ture funding. More money is going to have to come from somewhere. but it shouldn't be the taxpayers. New funding just a drop in the bucket "Taxpayers are not a bottomless pit," McLean said. "We can go back to the budget again and see if we want to make substantive changes. It's our right .. _ and I think it's our responsibility" "We're not getting anything that another sports group wouldn't get for what were paying," Poit- said. _ _ In the Git, Che fiiness room had been included 1n the agreement, but now it is an extra cost to the club, Poje said. That means some additional costs for the Club. but management is hop- ing that those costs won't be trans- ferred onto members. The club is work- ing hard to absorb those costs. "Previously the lease encompassed all uses, including the fitness facility. Now that is a payable," ije said. -. One way the"club will be able to off- set extra costs is by selling gym use at the fitness centre for the times when their members arerit using It. Poje said while it's not a perfect solution, it is a fair one. "Now that we've concluded negotia- lions, I'd say both parties are equally satisfied." Coun. Mark Whaley credited city staff with sticking to the negotiations and coming out with an agreeable out- come. "This difficult negotiation has spanned several years," Whaley said. "I'm glad to see the fruition of many years of work." We'tl bung your store to 32,000 doors. WATERLOO'S thm Comm NEWSPAPER 519-886-2932 ivknjiiijij"t"i'i'iiiNcu WATtRLUU CHIIONICUI . Wednesday, Febmary In a world of uncertainty t bring sense to it all. J. Earle McCormick Financial Strategist 519- 725-4505 Earle@JfarleMcCormick. com wwwUEarleMcctvmickiom 13201307