Look At The Facts

Harris did download but it was because Marting cut transfer payments to the provinces.
The downloading actually added only about $15 million to the city expenses.
The city took forever, and I doubt whether they have done it all, was to harmonize services and sell off redundant property.
The city has been given handouts every year.
City staff has grown.

It doesn't take a genius or a financial wizard to recognize that you don't spend money you don't have......

Top minds tackle city budget puzzle
February 24, 2007
Kerry Gillespie
Queen's Park Bureau

Toronto produces nearly 10 per cent of Canada's wealth but the city can't afford to build new subways or even fix its potholes.

To bring roads and buildings into good condition, add a few programs and balance the budget properly the city says it needs $1 billion – on top of the nearly $9 billion it spends each year.

That would take more than a 50 per cent property tax hike.

Clearly that won't fly.

So what is the answer?

On Monday and Tuesday, hundreds of big thinkers, activists, business people and politicians will debate possibilities at the Toronto Summit 2007.

Top items include getting the province to take on the full cost of social services such as welfare and drug benefits, giving Toronto 1 cent of an existing sales tax and getting the city to improve its bottom line through new user fees and working with the private sector.

It's a debate Toronto's budget chief is all too familiar with.

"I had a woman yell at me about a bump in the road at the end of her block," Councillor Shelley Carroll said.

"I said: `I would like to fix that bump ... but the reality is I'm using your property tax to buy prescription drugs for a little old lady in Pembroke, Ontario,'" Carroll said.

In 1998, former Conservative premier Mike Harris downloaded social programs but most homeowners still don't understand that a good portion of their property taxes are being used to pay for things such as welfare, drug benefits and subsidized housing, Carroll said.

Ontario has the dubious distinction of being the only province in Canada to partially fund these kinds of programs through property tax – a tax designed to fix roads, pickup garbage and maintain parks.

The candy store is open.......