This Is Why Toronto Is In Financial Straits

Comments like; "But no one can expect to eliminate a $575 million shortfall just by cutting fat at city hall." highlights the problem. Cutting "the fat" shows that our "leaders" are lean and mean and able to handle any largesse given by the feds and the province. They have to show the unions and the general public whose in charge and the hell with playing politics.........

Council stalls, city stagnates TheStar.com - comment - Council stalls, city stagnates

July 18, 2007

Where does the City of Toronto go from here?

Uncertainty rules now that city council has delayed until late October a decision on two new taxes. A $575-million budget gap looms next year and without those taxes there is no clear way even to come close to plugging it. Indeed, budget chief Shelley Carroll estimates the delay could cost up to $100 million in potential revenues. The result could be higher property taxes, fewer services for the poor, closed swimming pools, reduced snow removal and other destructive cuts.

If Toronto is to be a great city, such cuts must be avoided.

Two clear strategies present themselves in the wake of Mayor David Miller's failed attempt to raise $356 million through a new land transfer tax and a motor vehicle registration fee.

First, alternative funding is required. The best place to look for such money is at the main source of Toronto's chronic financial woes: Queen's Park. A major push is needed to force the provincial government to "upload" responsibility for government services that were unfairly imposed on cities in the 1990s.

Second, in case that campaign falls short, preparatory work on implementing a land transfer tax and vehicle registration fee should continue, just as if these measures had received city council approval. That way, less time would be lost, and there would be less harm to the city's finances, if these new taxes were eventually approved in the fall.