Twice before, Mayor Naheed Nenshi had chaired budget debates with a keenness to trim but opposed by a council majority often fond of the city hall programs on a would-be chopping block.

But having judged that enough trimming had been done in his first two years, the mayor joined his colleagues in this week’s 2013 budget debates to increase a little, preserve the rest and bring in a 5.5-per-cent property tax hike.

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