You Want An Answer To Toronto's Fiscal Problems

Property taxes should go to providing services to ensure the safety and necessities; ie: fire, police and emergency services, utilities, infra-structural maintenance & repair, garbage disposal, etc. Everything else should be provided and run by the provinces and the feds; social assistance, public health, immigration assistance, etc. If the city refused to provide these services how long do you think it would be before the province/feds stepped in?

The big squeeze on T.O. TheStar.com - News - The big squeeze on T.O.
February 24, 2007
Royson James

Mike Harris' Great Tax Rip-off of 1998 is fixed – the infamous download tamed and made revenue neutral by 2002 with a battery of fixes.

But don't even think the problem is licked.

Toronto's fiscal picture is such a discombobulating mess that even good news is smeared with a bad forecast.

As soon as the Harris download was corrected, a new wave of costs, dubbed Download 2 by the city's CFO Joe Pennachetti – whipsawed Toronto.

A Star analysis puts the impact of this latest round at $90 million in 2006, down from $139 million in 2005. That's how much Toronto is being short-changed in its battle to get Queen's Park to pay for programs the province forces Toronto to deliver and fund.

Meanwhile, next Monday and Tuesday, the Toronto Summit of some 400 urban thinkers and activists and corporate bigwigs aims to carve a way out of the morass. It's a path well studied. As always, money, and who pays what, is the key issue.

How did we get into this mess? How bad is it today? How do we get out?

Queen's Park answer to the problem has been to provide annual budget relief, short-term fixes, gas tax revenues, a few grants and forgiveness of loans.

One chart from the province shows provincial help to Toronto spiralling to $417.5 million this year, from $157.8 million in 2004. It seems like a lot of money until one notices that provincial program costs on the city have jumped to $820 million from $612 million in 2001.

Pointing to the chart, Toronto finance officials say: "This is recognition that we need provincial help. It's not fast enough; it's not permanent enough; it's not enough."

Will it ever be enough? Not likely.

Let's get out of the Big Brother mode