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When candidates at the first mayoral debate this week called Rob Ford’s “I saved taxpayers a billion dollars” claim a figment of his imagination, he countered that they must then be calling the city manager and chief financial officer liars.

So, on Thursday, the bureaucrats spoke. And they seemed to back up the mayor, but it is complicated.

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City manager Joe Pennachetti said over the last term of council there has been $972-million of “quote budget reductions, budget savings.” A chart released by CFO Rob Rossini showed that the bulk of savings — $753-million — came in the form of “cost reductions” and “efficiencies.” Another $45-million in savings came from contracting out garbage, $138-million in savings from changes to the collective agreement, and $6.4-million from cuts to political office budgets.

“They are not a billion dollar of tax savings, they’re budget savings,” Mr. Pennachetti told reporters Thursday, adding it does not mean the city government spent $972-million less over the last four years. “Budget savings include revenues and they include expenditures. That’s why we have to use specific language. If the mayor said it was a billion dollars of expenditure cuts, it’s incorrect. But it is a combination of expenditure cuts and revenues.”