I Am Starting A Fund....Please Donate

The purpose of the fund is to ensure that Mayor Miller, his staff and his socialist cohorts on city council get complimentary copies of all newspapers that have been offering solutions to Toronto's budget woes. We all recognize that there have to be some changes at Queens Park but part of the solution is fiscal responsibility by the mayor.

The T.O. way: Pay more, get less
By Lorrie Goldstein

Here's the bad news.

This year's City of Toronto budget proposes a 3.8% property tax hike, closing seven city pools, hiking fees for city services and depleting reserves.

Plus, it seeks a $71 million bail-out from the province.

Plus, it proposes using new tax powers council gained from the City of Toronto Act, courtesy of Premier Dalton McGuinty, to hit us up for more money, potentially, for going out for a drink, to a movie, to a concert, to a football, baseball, hockey or basketball game, and for parking our cars. Details to come.

So what's the good news? There is none.

Other than that with a provincial election looming in October, it will be relatively easy for Mayor David Miller to extort an extra big chunk of cash out of McGuinty's (read our) pockets this year, in order to throw another Band-Aid on the city's $7.8 billion operating budget, now gushing red ink every year.

Here's what would have to happen to get Toronto's annual budget fiasco under control.

First, McGuinty would have to properly fund city social services from the progressive income tax base, rather than forcing Toronto to do it through the regressive property tax base.

Second, he'd have to properly subsidize the TTC every year, rather than spending hundreds of millions of dollars on a new subway to nowhere in north Toronto.

Third, Miller and his left-leaning council would have to stop giving away the store to city unions every year, especially on wage hikes, which is unlikely since the mayor and many of his fellow councillors rely on those unions to help get them elected.

Fourth, every single city department budget would have to be reduced to zero and rebuilt from the ground up (zero-based budgeting), searching for efficiencies, unlikely in a climate where Miller's pet projects such as expanding his office is getting a 29.7% funding boost, his "Clean and Beautiful City Secretariat" 226.6% and his "Waterfront Secretariat" 30.6%.

Hey, we warned you what would happen if you elected Dalton "I won't raise your taxes" McGuinty in 2003, followed by David Miller and a left-wing majority to city council last year. Don't blame us.