Start With Fewer Beauracrats And Executives

...then eliminate councilor stipends for serving on department boards, then reduce councilor office budgets, then reduce the number of councilors.......

City Hall spits in the face of taxpayers

By SUN MEDIA

One thing Toronto taxpayers know, to our frustration, is every department at City Hall thinks it's special when it come to spending our money.

That restraint should only apply to others in the bureaucracy, not to it.

That their need for more cash -- regardless of the public's ability to pay -- trumps everything.

This year, even with the city facing a staggering $500-million hole in its budget to start, the politicians still don't get it.

Entire departments are pretending City Manager Joe Pennachetti's memo to trim budgets by 5% doesn't exist.

The Toronto Zoo board, a bastion of fiscal irresponsibility, far from cutting its budget by 5%, is asking for 3.2% more. To add insult to injury, it wants to up parking fees for zoo goers by $2 next year.

The board of health wants 1.7% more, arguing its circumstances are special because 75% of its funding is provincial -- as if that makes a difference to property taxpayers, who also have to dig deep to pay provincial and federal taxes.

FARE HIKES AND DEFICIT

The TTC just ignored the advice of its own staff on fare increases, trimming $12 million in projected revenues for next year, meaning it still faces a whopping $50 million deficit, even after the fare hikes.

The transit commission says the extra cash will have to be squeezed out of other city budgets (from where?), plus Ottawa and Queen's Park, apparently unaware the feds are facing a $56-billion deficit, the province $24.7 billion.

This unwillingness to face reality, this indifference to the fact every department that fails to hit budget puts more pressure on next year's property tax bill, already projected at well above inflation, is unacceptable.

It's irresponsible, it's arrogant and it spits in the face of taxpayers, which is particularly stupid considering councillors are heading into an election year.

This nonsense also has to be nipped in the bud.

City council should simply refuse to accept the budget of any city department that does not outline how a 5% budget cut can be achieved.

Because any department that isn't doing that right now, simply isn't doing its job.