And these new taxes will bail us out over the next couple of years but union contracts are coming up, inside/outside workers, TTC, Police, Fire And Paramedics and where will they get the extra money for those increases? The property owners in Toronto are going to continue to get screwed while the politicians, bureaucrats and city employees enjoy a "Fair Wage Mandate," extra-ordinary benefit packages and other perks they can screw us for......the new groove The Star refers to is the one leading to property owner's anal canal.
How Miller found his new groove
Seeking support for tomorrow's vote on tax plan, the mayor discovers consensus
October 21, 2007
Jim Byers
city hall bureau chief
It was meant as an innocent political observation. It sounded like a lot more.
Councillor Gloria Lindsay Luby, who had concerns from the get-go about Mayor David Miller's land transfer tax but ultimately came on board, was talking the other day about how deadly efficient the Toronto Real Estate Board was. Board workers prowled the offices at city hall prior to council's July vote on Miller's tax scheme and ultimately convinced intimidated politicians into deferring the decision until after the Oct. 10 provincial election.
"They had a paid lobbyist," said Lindsay Luby. "Who did we have? Nobody."
The city didn't have a lobbyist to woo its own councillors prior to their deferral, but they did have the mayor and his team of loyal supporters. Critics have suggested he failed to anticipate the lost vote back in July, in part because he doesn't make the rounds of councillors and keep track of their worries and issues the way he could.
If that's the case, Miller appears to have learned his lesson. The quiet mayor in the corner has morphed into the harmony-seeking mayor who's out and about with councillors and peppering his speeches with words like "consensus."
His new approach is expected to pay off tomorrow, when council is all but certain to approve a new land transfer tax and a vehicle registry tax that will help Toronto deal with perhaps half of its expected $400 million to $500 million budget shortfall for next year.
But the ride has been far from smooth, and critics say the city never would have been in this mess if Miller had only paid a little more attention to the plebes on city council back in July.
"When he was mayor, Mel Lastman's assistants would come around once a week or so and see what was up," said councillor and tax opponent Paul Ainslie. "David and his people don't do that enough."
Councillor Brian Ashton was named to Miller's executive committee late last year and said he hardly ever dealt directly with the mayor. Ashton, Miller points out, supported the tax scheme at executive committee but then voted for the deferral at council in July – a move that led to his removal from the executive.
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