Smoke And Mirrors Cloud Comrade Miller's Promise Of Transparency

We see more and more refusal by Comrade Miller's stooges to answer questions at committee meetings.......

Council shell game continues By SUE-ANN LEVY City Hall's annual fiscal follies kicked off at 12:40 p.m. yesterday and by 1:10 p.m. the Great Houdinis on the budget committee had managed to make all of the city's debt problems vanish in a cloud of smoke. As if. Suffice to say the presentation of the city's $1.52-billion capital budget for next year represented a new low in fiscal stewardship by a regime that appears to be fiddling ever more madly by the day while Rome burns. Nero the Emperor, er, Mayor David Miller, was nowhere to be seen as the budget committee brains -- some of the mayor's biggest sycophants -- met during the lunch hour to hear how big bucks will drop from the federal and provincial skies to fund the TTC, how the city's debt targets are affordable (there's a laugh) and how money will be taken from the deficit-plagued operating budget to keep the debt numbers down (and the city's credit rating high). As Joe Pennachetti, the city's chief financial officer rattled off a long list of numbers that would make a chartered accountant beg for mercy, many of the budget committee brains, including budget chief Shelley Carroll and Kyle Rae talked so loudly it was hard to hear the presentation. When the 30-minute presentation was done and Coun. Doug Holyday -- the lone right-wing councillor in attendance -- tried to ask a question, Carroll cut him off. She said questions won't be entertained until Nov. 13. "A significant number of budget committee members need to eat lunch," she said, referring to the fact the meeting was sandwiched (I believe deliberately) in between sessions of the executive committee. Such a circus. Dare I suggest these so-called stewards of the public purse wouldn't last a minute in the private sector. No matter how deftly Pennachetti endeavoured to spin the numbers, the fact remains this city is sinking deeper and deeper into debt. By the end of this year, the city's debt is estimated to be $2.4 billion, rising to $2.6 billion next year and $3 billion by 2012, if the city sticks to its five-year capital financing plan. That will mean another $45 million in debt service charges next year on top of the $440 million already factored into the 2007 operating budget. But as the CFO made clear, all of the projections are dependent on an ongoing commitment of hundreds of millions of dollars from the feds and the province for "five packages" of transit projects, starting with $420 million next year. The CFO also talked about taking more money -- about 10% more or $12 million next year -- from the operating budget to fund capital projects and avoid raising more debt. That would be the equivalent of a 1% property tax hike. But the best spin of the day was the backlog of city facilities, roads, community centres and so on needing repair is starting to "stabilize." Or maybe not. Transportation general manager Gary Welsh said they're spending $135 million to repair roads this year and they feel they're "stabilizing" the current $310-million backlog. But when pressed, Welsh said the backlog "actually will get worse" next year, rising to $400 million. Geesh. At least Brenda Librecz, general manager of parks and recreation, didn't mince any words. She said their current backlog is $232 million, which will grow to $325 milion in 2012. Some $30 million will be spent in 2008. "I should be spending $50 million every year in order to catch up," she said. As Pennachetti confirmed, scarce resources will instead be directed to the mayor's 13 priority neighbourhoods, to repair Union Station (after the mayor and his minions derailed a $150-million deal with the private sector) and to implement Miller's Climate Change Initiatives, green energy projects, as well as more bike lanes and speed humps. As Holyday mused after yesterday's sham of a budget meeting, the presentation was just a "formality." "I wanted to ask what's Plan B if the large grants (from the federal and provincial governments) don't materialize," he said. "My question was politely put down." Added Coun. Mike Del Grande: "It's the same hocus pocus all over again ... they're just moving the shells around."