At least those who voted for Miller and his lackeys and those who didn't vote.......
Opposition to taxes is a civic condition bred into most of us, or maybe it's something that gets learned after years of observing government spending habits. So one might conclude it is futile to try to sell voters on the idea that a new tax is good for them.
Outright revolt against new taxes is infrequent, though threats to that effect occur often enough. At the other end of the spectrum, full acceptance and welcoming of a new tax is that most rare of occurrences when citizens, civil society and strong civic leadership coalesce around a clear need.
Most governments try to settle for something between those extremes. And that's where Mayor David Miller and city council are headed with a new tax plan that's already been beset with more bad publicity than Paris Hilton.
There is a view that even if ratepayers oppose a tax measure, the opposition can be blunted if the government proposing the tax does a good job of communicating, listening, responding. Humility helps; arrogance is a killer.
That said, Toronto city politicians in this case have failed the prerequisites for acceptance. All they can hope for is quiet resignation on the part of residents – a silent fuming that remains bottled.
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