Look For Increased Fees.......

Time to look at cuts to social in-activist programs, less $$$ to the arts, reduced staffing, reduction to concillor's office budgets, etc.

Nothing left of welfare reserves
By BRYN WEESE, SUN MEDIA
Toronto council has pilfered welfare reserves since 2004 to pay the bills for mounting operating costs.

Miller: No tax hike
Mayor nixes mid-year increase
By BRYN WEESE, SUN MEDIA

Toronto taxpayers will not be dinged with an additional mid-year tax hike if the recession wreaks unexpected havoc on the city's finances, Mayor David Miller told the Toronto Sun's editorial board last week.
The proposed $8.7-billion budget already increases residential property tax rates by 4%, which Miller said was "as low as can be achieved."
Recessions, though, have a way of throwing wrenches into systems.
PRESSURES
During the last one in 1991-92, city council was forced to levy a 14.7% property tax increase midway through a budget year because of welfare and other ballooning recessionary pressures.
Miller told the Sun the budget already accounts for rising costs, budget committee members are still confident with their estimates and the budget was built with the flagging economy in mind.
"My goal in this budget, and at this time, is to preserve services -- high quality public services matter," he said, noting the budget also seeks "to make strategic investments where we can, particularly with respect to public transit and transportation."
The proposed 2009 budget, which is at council for approval in early April, increases spending by $500 million over last year and also hires more than 1,000 new staff.
It also increases funding for the TTC by $100 million and freezes TTC fares, an important move during a recession, Miller said.
But next year's budget will be a "challenge," he conceded, particularly because the 2009 budget relies on $43 million from reserves that are now gone and more than $230 million from the province as a share of the provincial surplus. The province announced last week it is planning to run an $18-billion deficit over the next two years.
Given those pressures, keeping the consensus on council to keep shifting the tax burden onto homeowners from businesses will be difficult.
"That's a tough consensus to keep on council," he said. "That policy will be under stress next year."
Miller said, in part, the increase of this year's budget over last year is due to provincially arbitrated wage settlements with the city's police and fire services.
Another anticipated cost pressure for the city is new contracts for its two largest unions, CUPE Locals 416 and 79, that expired last year.
The proposed budget does anticipate an increase in unionized wages, but Miller wouldn't say how much because it would be "inappropriate" to interfere with the negotiations.
He did say, "expectations need to be modest."
But veteran Councillor Case Ootes, who Miller admitted virtually ran the city as deputy mayor under Mel Lastman, said staff salaries need to be frozen.
$100M COST
According to Ootes, every 1% increase in staff salaries costs the city $40 million. If staff get a 2.5% increase -- similar to the 2.4% cost-of-living increase councillors received this year -- that's a $100-million cost to taxpayers.
"Those are big numbers," Ootes said. "We seem to be living in a dream world when it comes to what's happening out in the world."
Ootes also criticized the mayor for failing to "lay the foundation" for 2010, a budget year. "It's a budget for the moment that totally ignores the train wreck that's going to happen next year," Ootes charged.