SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The city's 2011 budget was passed with a five-to-three vote Tuesday night, but one councillor said he can't call it his own.

City councillor David Wind requested he speak last during the budget ratification meeting Tuesday, where he expressed his disappointment council was unable to reduce the 3.99 per cent tax increase, which translates to an average $65 a year added to property taxes in 2011.

"In council's deliberations I can't recall one item that we were successful in shepherding a reduction for," he said.

Although there were suggestions to cut the contingency fund, which is $75,000, and reduce the $500,000 budgeted for the restoration of the Wildcat Cafe, council was unable to find anything to cut from the draft budget.

Wind said administration deserves the credit for reducing the tax increase to 3.99 per cent from 7.2 per cent, as was projected earlier in the year, not council.

"That's really a sad comment," he said, "because when I came to council I was hoping that as a councillor I would have some affect on the budget and I would be able to make things a little less expensive and a bit more affordable for our residents, but in the four or five budgets that I've gone through now, there has been precious little that has been achieved by councillors in that regard."

Wind suggested administration take a new approach to the budget next year to allow council a greater role in the budgeting process.

Administration should first present council with the city's revenues and a list of possible expenditures, he said.

"Then allow us to have some kind of say in the priority setting exercise. It seems to me in that way we can bring some discipline to our budgeting."

Couns. Paul Falvo and Cory Vanthuyne also opposed the budget.

Falvo said the budget is a reminder of the many good things Yellowknife has to offer, but suggested there might be too many good things, causing the city to live beyond its means.

Vanthuyne's issue was with the allocation of $500,000 for the restoration of the Wildcat Cafe, which he proposed be reduced to $50,000 until further discussions and research is done.

Wind, Falvo and Vanthuyne voted for the proposed amendment, suggesting the city look for other funding options.

"We have to give this project more review," said Vanthuyne, who said he felt like the restoration of the 73-year-old log cabin was put before council "at the 11th hour of budget deliberations."

Couns. Mark Heyck, Lydia Bardak, Bob Brooks, Amanda Mallon and Shelagh Montgomery voted against the amendment and for the budget.

Heyck said it's a common misconception the city starts the budgeting process in November and rushes through it in a few weeks, but really council makes decisions throughout the year that have an impact on the final budget.

"It's a little hypocritical for some of the councillors who opposed the budget to suggest that they didn't feel it was council's budget or that they were disappointed that we weren't able to make further cuts or maybe we're trying to do too much, when some of those councillors have supported past decisions."

Some of those decisions include building the Fieldhouse and taking on the operations and maintenance costs at the Curling Club, which are responsible for a $411,000 rise in expenditures and the resulting tax increase, said Heyck.

"The budget isn't shaped in the last month or the last year - it's the result of years of decisions made by councils past and present."

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