South Ayrshire Council leader Martin Dowey has told critics that the authority needs to generate money or face the consequences down the line.
He added that increasing income is the only way to protect council staff.
One of the main hopes for bring in money is September’s airshow. Neither the SNP or Labour budgets included the event.
Cllr Dowey said that the show would have been cancelled had one been approved.
He said: “This is not about politics, it is about common sense. You cannot keep salami slicing services and expect a service. As a council we need to get income.
“We need to generate money. We can’t just live off council tax.
“If you look at South Ayrshire’s budget there is about £90m that isn’t ring fenced. We are making £10m in savings a year. In nine years’ time, there’s no council left.”
He added that he was confident the inaugural airshow would make a profit this year.
Cllr Dowey said that his ‘number one priority’ is protecting staff, pointing out that the focus had been on vacant and temporary posts.
He said: “My number one priority is to protect the staff, if that means some outside contractors don’t get business and we protect our own staff.
“Staff are forgotten about when we are all playing silly politics in county hall.
“There are a lot of folk who are worrying about livelihoods.
“But we can’t protect staff without generating revenue.”
He also hit back at criticism of spending more than £5m on golf in South Ayrshire, pointing out that capital funds could not be used for the day-to-day running of services.
He also acknowledged that, despite differences, he believes the SNP and Labour put forward plans that they believed would benefit South Ayrshire.
However, he added that the opposition had said that manifesto promises such as investing £1m in each ward could not be done, but had been included in the budget.
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