Q&A
Explanation of budget savings and asylum seeker costs
7:00:59
·
147 sec
Director Jiha provides a detailed explanation of the city's budget savings and the significant costs associated with the asylum seeker crisis, defending the necessity of budget cuts.
- Jiha argues that if cuts were unnecessary, there would be a $7.5 billion surplus, which is not the case
- Highlights the $4.6 billion spent on asylum seekers as a major unforeseen expense
- Explains the need to find savings to backfill stimulus dollars and fund critical programs
Jacques Jiha
7:00:59
No.
7:00:59
Nobody says these cuts are unnecessary.
7:01:01
Let me give you the logical extension of your argument.
7:01:04
We save $7,500,000,000 which means right now if the cuts were not necessary we would have $7,500,000,000 surplus in our budget.
7:01:12
Okay?
7:01:13
If the cuts were not necessary.
7:01:14
So the cuts were so the savings were used to fund something.
7:01:18
So if our budget is balanced and we said we saved $7,500,000,000 those $7,500,000,000 have been used to fund something.
7:01:28
So it's saying they were not necessary.
7:01:31
It means that we would have $7,500,000,000 surplus.
7:01:34
We don't have that.
7:01:35
So again, as I said, I understand where you're coming from.
7:01:38
This is not a dense for us.
7:01:39
Okay?
7:01:40
We had to take some tough measures.
7:01:43
This is one of the pleasant.
7:01:45
We had to take some tough measures because we're dealing with a major crisis.
7:01:49
Listen to this.
7:01:50
We just spent 4.6 $1,000,000,000 on the asylum seekers.
7:01:56
This is not a forecast.
7:01:57
This is what we actually spent.
7:01:59
So you cannot say we spent $4,600,000,000 that we didn't spent a year and a half ago, okay, without a new source of funding, okay, as if there is no problem.
7:02:11
It's got to be a problem.
7:02:12
There is a reason why you spend $4,600,000,000 So that $4,600,000,000 we had to find it somewhere.
7:02:19
We had to find savings somewhere.
7:02:22
We had to find savings to backfill the stimulus dollars, okay, for to fund those critical program that were about to go away.
7:02:32
Okay?
7:02:32
So the funding has to come from somewhere.
7:02:35
So you can't have your cake and eat it at the same time.
7:02:38
Okay?
7:02:38
We saved 7 and a half 1000000000.
7:02:40
These are tough measures that the mayor had to take.
7:02:45
Okay?
7:02:45
These are the savings that allow us to fund the migrant crisis to backfill for the stimulus tax dollars that were about to expire, particularly for 3 k.
7:02:57
Okay?
7:02:58
A lot of a big chunk of 3 k were funded with stimulus dollars.
7:03:02
Okay?
7:03:02
So the mayor made the decision to backfill those tax dollars.
7:03:06
Okay?
7:03:06
The money had to come from somewhere.
7:03:08
So we're not taking this lightly at all.
7:03:10
This is not a dance for us.
7:03:12
Okay?
7:03:12
This is real.
7:03:13
This is serious business.
7:03:14
Okay?
7:03:15
So I'm hoping you appreciate what we do and like everybody else appreciate what we do because this was a very, very, very tough environment for everyone.
7:03:25
Okay?
