I Will Take A Handful Of Nickels & Dimes

Lindsay Luby spends $4,800 on spin

By SUE-ANN LEVY

Fiscally conservative councillor Gloria Lindsay Luby issued a flyer to her Etobicoke constituents last week asking for their support in her crusade to "keep property taxes low."

The eight-page, two-colour flyer -- which Lindsay Luby estimates cost around $4,800 -- is chock full of propaganda we've heard ad nauseum from Mayor David Miller and his socialist seals as to why property taxes can't be raised, why the proposed new City of Toronto Act taxes are "FAIR" and "EQUITABLE" plus the usual fearmongering about frontline services being cut if the new taxes don't go through at council next week.

"As a fiscal conservative, I agree that savings need to be found but we cannot nickel and dime enough services to fund a shortfall of over $575 million," she writes. "Voting to eliminate plant watering at civic centres (to save $50,000) will just not do it."

As I noted in my piece this past Sunday, proposing $440 million in potential savings next year, the annual plant-watering budget, which comes under Lindsay Luby's government management committee portfolio, is actually $77,000.

For the record, cuts like these are symbolic. Taxpayers don't appreciate being soaked by these kinds of costs, however small.

Linday Luby's flyer was handed to me at a Toronto Party symposium in Etobicoke last Sunday by a constituent who said she was appalled that a so-called fiscal conservative could release such bunk.

The resident was particularly upset that in a survey attached to the flyer, constituents are asked to choose between three options to lower the deficit: 1. Raise property taxes substantially; 2. Make major cuts to service, or 3. Reform taxes through the new land transfer tax, vehicle registration tax and a billboard tax (the latter's not even on the books, yet).

The constituent added her own option -- manage the city better -- knowing full well her opinion would be discarded.

She's right. Lindsay Luby bristled when I suggested that many of her constituents feel this way.

"That's the easy one (option) ... that's not what I'm faced with ... I'm faced with the three choices I've given people."

She claimed city officials are managing things better. "Performance management is an ongoing thing," she said. "We do re-engineer a number of the programs and processes we have ... it's continuous improvement."

Not that I agree with her, but given her assertions, I asked her how she felt about a report on her own committee agenda last Friday which states that city real estate officials have sold off $9.8 million in assets during the first nine months of 2007 but purchased another $10.6 million in properties (a figure buried on the report's last page). She told me she asked for an updated report that reflects more current disposals but added city officials didn't have a handle on the current numbers, when asked.

So much for continuous improvement. What's more accurate to say is that Lindsay Luby and other members of the mayor's inner circle are continuously working to improve their political spin as next Monday's council meeting fast approaches.

Thankfully, Etobicoke councillor Peter Milczyn doeesn't seem to be buying the mayor's schtick.

He told me he knows there are "significant savings" to be had that shouldn't affect the level of city services -- savings similar to what I proposed on Sunday which he put in writing to the mayor months ago.

As far as Milczyn is concerned, if Miller doesn't come forward with significant cost reductions before Monday -- not just tinkering or mere talk about looking next year at councillors' budgets -- he won't be supporting the proposed land transfer or vehicle ownership taxes.

"If it's the taxes more or less how they were proposed ... and very marginal cost reductions, no," he said, noting he'd agree to cut back his office budget and give back his 8.9% salary increase, which kicked in last January. "So far on the record or off the record, he (the mayor) hasn't committed to any particular course of action."