In the end, the people pay.
Always.
At high noon today, Toronto's top bureaucrat and city manager Shirley Hoy will announce a battery of service cuts designed to net the city $83 million this year – money the mayor thought he had last month when he proposed two new taxes totalling $356 million.
City council balked, deferring the tax decision to October. This triggered the mayor's directive that staff embark on "cost containment" to find the money anyway. And today we learn the damage.
The fallout from the unexpected city council vote raises some issues. Among them:
Did council know that its July vote to defer action on the new taxes would lead the mayor to impose these cuts immediately?
In other words, apart from veiled threats imbedded in the usual rhetoric of debate, did Mayor David Miller tell city council the choices now apparent? A land transfer tax and vehicle registration tax – or immediate service cuts and layoffs.
Secondly, if the $83 million in cuts can be identified this quickly, why were these measures not in play much earlier?
We've just gone through a civic election where little of this was contemplated or debated. Every year, the city budget has progressed in a manner designed to create insomnia and lead to the impression that there will always be a saviour and a bailout, so don't worry.
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