don't have a problem paying my way, although it gets difficult on a fixed income, but I think I have a right to have some input into how my $$$$ are spent......I don't need speed bumps, being the owner of a theatre is not at the top of my list, supplying wine and cigarettes at homeless shelters is a nice gesture but not out of my pocket, providing millions to accomodate artistes at Wychwood Barns doesn't turn me on, spending millions so transit riders on St. Clair get home 5 minutes earlier seems a little wasteful and I can go on and on. Why should anyone give you more money when you don't seem to show any intention to spend what you get wisely?
Queen's Park Bureau Chief
Donovan Vincent
City hall Bureau
Toronto councillors need to make "difficult decisions" like increasing taxes because there are no imminent plans to bail out the city, Premier Dalton McGuinty warned yesterday – a comment that prompted the first signals of shifting ground at city hall.
Calling the premier a "coward'' and a "man of inaction,'' Councillor Maria Augimeri (Ward 9, York Centre) said last night she's changed her mind since last week's vote to defer a decision on new taxes until after the Oct. 11 provincial election.
The left-leaning council veteran, who voted for the deferral in hopes the province would take back some of the city's costs for social services, now wants the issue of implementing land-transfer and vehicle-registration taxes reopened when council reconvenes in September.
"I thought the provincial parties would come out in strong support of Toronto. Call me naïve,'' Augimeri said. She said she's lost faith the province will help, given McGuinty's comments and those last week by Conservative leader John Tory, who said he'd wait for a pending report on municipal downloading before committing himself.
A move to reopen the vote, which narrowly passed 23-22, would require two-thirds support at council.
That's unlikely. And it's unclear how Augimeri's change of position would affect the outcome. For instance, at least one councillor, Paul Ainslie (Ward 43 Scarborough East), voted against deferring because he didn't want to delay a decision, but is opposed to the new taxes.
"We'll see what happens over the next little while," said Don Wanagas, a spokesperson for Mayor David Miller, who added that McGuinty's remarks about the city needing to take its own steps to address its fiscal woes are in keeping with the mayor's statements before last week's vote.
Augimeri said a new land transfer tax and vehicle registration fee would be the easiest for Toronto to implement because they could be "piggybacked'' on existing provincial taxes. "I would do this (vote for the new taxes) to save the seniors in my ward because they wouldn't have to pay higher property taxes,'' she said.
Speaking during a campaign-style swing through Guelph, the premier lashed out at the councillors who had lobbied the province long and hard for additional taxing powers, then failed to use them.
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