Some Will Say It Is Miller Bashing.......

.......but those are the same people who are first in line at the trough, who believe in a cradle to grave existence as long as someone else is paying, who still blame Harris for everything and who bring out the label makers every time someone is critical or asks questions.

City stumbles from crisis to crisis

Let's start with a point on which reasonable people can agree.

Toronto City Hall should not be run like an unscrupulous used car lot.

(Our apologies in advance to honest used car salesmen everywhere.)

The problem at City Hall is that almost every time it rolls out a new "product" these days -- in this case the 2008 operating budget -- there are hidden fees, cost add-ons and way too much small print.

Last week, it was a now-nuked 21.5% hike in permit fees to rent city-owned ice rinks, pools and sports fields that nobody, including Mayor David Miller, bothered to mention when he proudly introduced the city's proposed 2008, $8.2-billion operating budget last month, crowing it was the first balanced one in a decade.

Then, when news of the permit fee hikes almost 10 times the inflation rate leaked out early last week, even some councillors complained neither the mayor nor staff had alerted them.

Presumably, they could have found this defunct $2.1 million cash grab (which will now have to be made up somewhere else) if they had combed line by line through the budget.

Next came increased fees for garbage pickup.

But the larger point is this is hardly the first time a fiasco like this has happened.

Voting for change.......