Steinbach Mayoral Candidate Paul Neustaedter has offered to clarify how he plans to cover the Pat Porter Active Living Centre’s property taxes.

On Wednesday, Neustaedter announced he would make sure that the Pat Porter Active Living Centre would not have to worry about their $13,000 property tax bill if he was elected mayor. The announcement drew some criticism as it did not specify where the money would come from.

On Friday morning, Neustaedter clarified his promise.

“People have asked about transparency and I have always been transparent and I do have a plan, and that plan is, I met many weeks ago with the city manager and I asked him if it is possible to show my support to seniors, if it was possible to actually take a reduction in my wages as mayor if I was elected. It is possible if that is approved by council and so I plan on bringing that forward on council after the election if I become mayor and I will allow them to decide on that.”

Neustaedter notes the $13,000 would be offered to the seniors centre in the form of an approved grant.

Mayoral Candidate Earl Funk says forfeiting the mayoral salary would cheapen the position of mayor.

“The mayors job, that position has value and I think if you don’t take the salary, that is fine and if you want to give it as a gift to an organization, that works too but I don’t think it is right to bring it to the city coffers and translate it into a grant because that actually jeopardizes the grant process and that sends the wrong message to other organizations.”

Funk says if you want to give a donation, that is great, adding we all give donations and nobody know about it. He notes the timing of this announcement is concerning.

“Now I think the important thing is if you look at the timing of this announcement, it looks like vote buying to me.”

Mayoral Candidate John Fehr says since the beginning of his campaign he has been advocating for a plan to take care of the seniors centre’s $13,000 tax bill.

“I think that anybody can step up anytime and pay the taxes for the seniors and they wouldn’t refuse the money and I don’t believe you need to be the mayor in order to pay the taxes for the seniors. In my plan that I developed several months back, you can read all about this on johnfehr.ca, I believe that I could get support of council for my plan which was also to work with the seniors to get that $13,000 tax bill taken care of.”

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Neustaeder Makes Announcement At Seniors Centre 
Mayoral Candidate Caution Voters To Be Wary Of Empty Promises