[thistleclub]

CBC Hamilton:

On Friday, Ward 5 Councillor Chad Collins presented a laundry list of 19 line items from the city’s capital budget that could be scratched in favour of reducing the expected tax increase for 2014.....

But the changes weren’t without their critics.

Justin Jones, co-organizer of Yes We Cannon — the group that successfully lobbied the city to look into the installation of two-way bike lanes on Cannon Street — said he’s worried that a $100,000 cut to the city’s bike infrastructure budget will thwart future cycling initiatives in Hamilton.

Collins had said that the cut was justified because much of the $300,000 from the capital budget that’s devoted to bike lanes on a yearly basis isn’t getting spent, and because some of the funding for cycling projects comes from other places.

However, Jones complained that councillors sometimes veto bike lane projects that have already been designed by staff, creating surplus funding from projects that were planned in full, but never implemented.

Hamilton Spectator:

Next year's proposed $285-million capital budget includes $20 million in funds "reallocated" from completed, delayed or abandoned capital projects approved by council in the past.

Too often, councillors don't know where that "recycled" cash comes from — or what previously approved projects died to make it available, said Councillor Chad Collins at Friday's budget meeting…

At that same meeting, Collins introduced a series of motions to cut or put off more than $3 million of proposed 2014 capital spending, including allocations for public art, cycling lanes and video traffic detection.

He noted money for bike lanes is going unspent each year because staff can't complete enough projects to keep up with its annual $300,000 capital budget request. "If we can't spend it (in a given year) I'm not sure we should be taxing people for it," he said.