Municipal budgets: You get what you pay for

Winnipeg's mayoral race is now officially underway. Any serious contenders are going to have to convince a very skeptical public that they can turn around what really has been a winter of discontent with city services. Unfortunately, problems that have taken years to accumulate are unlikely to be addressed overnight.

A quick look at the city's budget priorities over the last several years shows how we got into this mess. Between 2001 and 2013 total City of Winnipeg revenue increased by 42 per cent. This number provides the ammunition for those claiming that the City's spending is "out of control." Yet this number is entirely misleading for two reasons.