Some Thing For Comrade Miller To Muse While He Is On That Slow Boat To China

The public has spoken but the left won't listen....... Are you in favour of a complete ban on handguns?
Yes		5%
No		95%
Total Votes for this Question: 22496

POINT OF VIEW: Gun thugs don't deserve public housing

And neither do those who protect them either through family loyalty or fear......

Instead of launching a petition calling for Ottawa to ban handguns, why doesn't Mayor David Miller act on things he can do right now to reduce gun violence?

Full Point of View

David Miller -- Tax Cutter! That's right, the mayor of land-transfer taxes, user fees and the like actually slices and dices

by SUE-ANN LEVY

You've read it here first folks.

Our Mayor-with-a-Mandate is not simply a force to be reckoned with on the world environmental stage, a human rights advocate, a Harvard-trained economist, a true visionary, a champion of Toronto's prosperity, an anti-gunslinger and an all-round great leader with great hair.

But as Mayor David Miller told a rather milquetoast crowd of about 300 business types at the annual Board of Trade luncheon yesterday, he's also a "tax cutter."

Yes indeed. I heard it for myself. Borrowing, I dare say, from former Ontario premier Mike Harris -- a self-styled tax fighter -- His Blondness unabashedly claimed he should be considered a "tax-cutter" for electing to lower taxes for small businesses in this city over the next 10 years.

"We're supporting Toronto's economy by limiting increases to business taxes and cutting taxes for small businesses," he told the crowd. "Let me repeat that: We're cutting taxes for small businesses."

"David Miller -- tax cutter!" he proclaimed.

Now look. I can live with listening to the same monotonous speech -- like the one Miller delivered yesterday -- full of shameless backpatting about this year's balanced operating budget (a "milestone" for the city, he crowed), the "courage" he and his council showed to approve the land-transfer tax and other nosestretchers like his claims that the 86-page report of his blue-ribbon panel (full of proposals to improve the city's fiscal health) has "put an end to the argument this city is mismanaged."

When only one business person had the temerity to ask Miller whether he'd be settling the current union contracts up for negotiation -- the TTC and the police -- with pay increases well above the inflation rate, I could have predicted that the mayor would contend that his past settlements (of a 3% increase or more per year) have not been "out of line" with inflation (running at about 1.9%).

"We do need to pay people properly and fairly," he responded.

I'm not sure what "fairly" means in this Harvard economist's lexicon. But with the TTC union poised, I'm guessing, to play the same silly strike threat games with the commuting public this weekend, I'm betting the mayor will give his union pals a "fairly" substantial increase to keep them on the job.

I certainly wasn't surprised either that Miller would try to distract the crowd from the real issue of his far-from-fiscally-sustainable city by yapping at some length about how he intends to save Toronto and this country from crimes of violence with his petition calling for a total handgun ban.

"The facts are very clear," he said five times to convey the message that guns kill and it's "unacceptable" for legal gun owners to put "innocent lives at risk."

WHITE NOISE

I beg to differ. I find it "unacceptable" that he'd use this explosive issue to try to raise his profile.

Still, the mayor's penchant for telling fairy tales has become in a sense white noise -- to this humble scribe, at least.

But tax cutter? To pretend he's anything remotely resembling a champion of taxpayers, well that's really rich.

For one thing, his claims that he's cut small business taxes are, like most of his contentions, misleading. It's not as if the mayor has cut the envelope of property taxes he and his minions will guzzle up this year to fund all their socialist schemes. They've merely shifted the burden from business to residential taxpayers (who got whacked with a 3.75% hike this year, among other increases).

And like most initiatives at City Hall, Miller was forced into doing so after ignoring the constant exodus of companies to the 905 region, where the costs of doing business are far, far cheaper.

Let's not forget for a minute the tax happy Miller regime has been shamelessly creative about finding ways to whack taxpayers with new fees and levies -- not just the land transfer and vehicle ownership taxes, but the soon-to-be imposed garbage tax, higher parking charges, recreation fee hikes and even an increased push on collecting fees to licence dogs and cats.

Kevin Gaudet, Ontario director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, said he finds it "outrageous" that the mayor who's imposed the largest tax hikes in municipal history (in one year) would even suggest he's a tax-cutter.

"I feel like I've flipped back into (George) Orwell's 1984 where he can say anything he wants," said Gaudet. "This guy's a taxpayer's worst nightmare, not a tax cutter."