Miller's budget wonderland

It's as if the mayor thinks the economic gloom and doom is happening on another planet

By SUE-ANN LEVY

Mayor David Miller must have been feeling particularly imaginative when he cobbled together his budget priorities for 2009 during last week's festivities dedicated to creativity and the "ahts."

There's no doubt his three-page memo -- written Oct. 1 -- takes great artistic license with the facts concerning the city's fiscal state and the public's view of his mandate.

Dropped on yesterday's executive committee at the 11th hour and as item 27 (with no opportunity for debate) the mayor's memo contains so many nosestretchers I don't have the space to reiterate them.

He maintains -- and thankfully I read the memo before lunch -- that he and his minions have "carefully managed spending and debt" and improved Toronto's AA credit rating.

Oops. Guess the mayor forgot the fact that the city's net debt has jumped $1.2 billion since he came into office and now tops $2.8 billion. Or that on the very same executive committee agenda there's a report pointing out that the city's employee benefits liabilities are expected to grow to $2.1 billion this year, with a mere 10% of that amount squirreled away in a reserve fund to cover them.

"The major credit rating agencies have identified the unfunded portion of employee benefits liabilities as a negative ratings factor," the report notes.

His Blondness also boasts -- quite cheekily I might add -- that his regime has produced "world-leading plans," from climate change to economic development.

There's no stopping King David. But I guess he has to justify all his swanning around the world as chairman of the C40 group of cities fighting climate change and the $55,000(!) in taxpayer money he dropped down the drain hosting the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities conference last July.

The memo also proves, in my view, how out-of-touch and arrogantly dismissive the Miller regime has grown in response to the constituents who put the socialists in their cozy council seats.

For one thing, I counted at least four mentions of "my mandate" -- as if at least half of council and the real basic priorities of their constituents are a non-starter.

For another, it's as if all the talk of economic gloom and doom is happening on quite another planet than in the city overseen by the man who likes to proudly tout his Harvard economics degree.

DEFICIT NOT AVAILABLE

City manager Joe Pennachetti also told me a deficit figure for next year won't be available for a couple of months as they need to wait to see what funding will come from the province (if and when it uploads social services).

Nevertheless, the mayor claims next year his budget will include "targeted investments" (i.e., more spending) on "successful city-building" initiatives like Transit City and his "world-leading" climate change plan; on staffing Toronto's "first" Civic Engagement Office; on working to fully implement the Toronto Bike Plan and on providing cost-of-living to the hundreds of professional grant-getters benefitting from the city's largesse.

Miller indicates he also intends to provide the "necessary resources" to enhance socialist black holes like his "successful" homeless/panhandling program and the hug-a-thug initiatives contained in the community safety plan.

A target is deliberately not set for union wage hikes and with good reason -- Miller already gave away the candy store to the firefighters. I'm sure we'll hear any day now TTC employees have been handed the same, and on and on.

Doug Holyday winced when he read the memo, stating quite decidedly the mayor is "out of touch with reality.

"It's business as usual, spend what you need and worry about tomorrow, tomorrow," he said, predicting ever more tax increases to fund the mayor's mandate. "It's going down a path to destruction."

Adds Coun. Mike Del Grande: "It's I, I, I and my, my, my ... his (the mayor's) big thing is to be the next Kennedy of Canada with respect to green."

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Arrivederci Signor Miller: Speaking of green, the mayor is off on another jaunt to Milan tomorrow to participate in a two-day OECD plenary on cities and climate change. As if to justify his jet-setting I was told yesterday he'll also be meeting with senior government officials while there. Hmmm, and what happened to all of his deputy mayor's trips to his Italian homeland? In fact, I've lost count how many times Joe Pantalone has travelled to Italy on the taxpayers' tab in the past few years.