David Miller's right hand transit boy Adam Giambrone is threatening to smash up his trains and go home because the ungrateful
slobs in Toronto don't know what's good for them, quit their whinging and take their tax medicine. The source of all this angst
and teeth gnashing is something to do with a 350 million some-odd dollar "shortfall" in the latest and greatest 7.8 billion
budget, which the clever kids at city hall were going make up a series of taxes and fees aimed at maximizing the pain on
non-Mayor Quimby voters.
Why does Toronto need a 7.8 billion dollar budget, given that city basically stopped growing in the last decade? God only
knows -- here's a little Excel chart I whipped up showing the Toronto operating budgets, constant dollar adjustments (assuming
2% inflation) and a per-pop breakdown where I could do it:
Year
Operating
Constant
Population
per Pop
1998
5.6
6.69
1999
5.5
6.44
2000
5.9
6.78
2001
6.1
6.87
2,481,494
$2,768
2002
6.2
6.85
2003
6.4
6.93
2004
6.6
7.00
2005
7.1
7.39
2006
7.1
7.24
2007
7.8
7.80
2,503,281
$3,116
Since amalgamation, our budget has gone up a billion and change with no substantial population growth.
BTW, Mike Harris has been gone from power since 2002, so you can stop blaming him for downloading. It's been implicitly
endorsed by his successors, neither named Mike or Harris.
I heard it was $533 million... And while Mr. Harris' successors haven't been chomping at the bit to start spending
more cash (which I believe they also don't particularly have, due to a similar federal fiscal imbalance), I think blame for the
downloading of social services onto Toronto does rest, ultimately, in the hands of Mike.
And on a more positive note, what are your suggestions for finding the $500 million in extra cash? I've heard a lot of
people complaining about higher taxes, and TTC cuts, and land transfer taxes, but I haven't heard a single proposal as to where
that money would come from...
The long term and _only_ realistic solution is re-upload things that were downloaded to Toronto, especially wrt. various
social services. Cities do not (and should not) have the revenue tools to deal with things that are fundamentally an issue
about society. North Bay can do social services with a one-way bus ticket to Toronto; we do not have this option. I'll note
that Miller doesn't push for this issue because he enjoys having the power to meddle with this sort of thing, doing a
half-assed job as per usual. You'll also note that the revenue tools that Miller are looking for from the provincial government
are hidden taxes, such as a percentage of the GST; hidden taxes stop accountability, which is the last thing these clowns
want.
I'm not sure if Torontonians really appreciate how truly fucked this city is right now; it is becoming a bedroom community
for the burbs, unreal unemployment. A large part of this has to do with taxation (my wife owns a small warehouse and pays
immense taxes; the argument for moving it elsewhere is huge). Note that Ontario is doing its fair share of Toronto-raping, but
this is turning into more of a rant than I expected so I'll let it slide...
On to concrete proposals, which are not to be read as complete set:
implement last year's budget again?
across the board pay cut. A substantial pay cut.
abandon "morality" projects, such as recycling, "global warming" related projects, public health stuff not related to
infectious diseases and food delivery. Yes, they make everyone feel warm and fuzzy make us root through our garbage like 13th
century peasants, but you'll not a distinctive lack of reporting on where all the cycled glass goes, etc.
everything not self-supporting and not related to moving people around, putting water in houses and taking sewage out of
it needs to be up for grabs
pay cuts, across the board
street cars are a scam; replace them with buses.
zoned pricing for the TTC
upload TTC to a regional authority
allow private competition for traffic, just like in London.
tax private golf courses _as if there were houses on the land_. Why the fuck do clubs charging hundred thousand+ in
initiation, thousands of dollars in yearly memberships, and allow "blackballing" pay $3000 / year in property tax?
admit that "homelessness" and "affordable housing" are two totally unrelated issues
massively cut the budget for the the 5000 "homeless" people in Toronto, which costs $160 million year. There's a quick
100 million for you. If drinking homemade hootch is causing the medical system grief _the provincial government should do
something about it_
stop spending money on affordable housing; the city is a shitty slumlord. If they _can't run the fucking subways which is
pretty well the definition of their job_ then they have no business running pet projects to sooth their social
consciousness
no congestion charges, but tolls on roads coming from the burbs. A congestion charge will kill downtown (we're not
London; a man bored with London is bored with life, a man bored with Toronto is just a guy who can move to any number of
places the look and act much the same, many of them within driving distance). Two bucks to come down the don valley or on the
Gardner is very fair
stop wasting money on pet projects, such as "reshaping the harborfront" or whatever it is.
David Janes, if you ever run for office you have my vote!! I agree with pretty much every one of the bullet points
above.
If people don't think city workers are paid to much, I suggest they look here -
http://www.fin.gov.on.ca/english/publications/salarydisclosure/2006/munic06.html - then look at what those same salaries would
command on monster.com or even other cities.
As for this - "North Bay can do social services with a one-way bus ticket to Toronto; we do not have this option" - why
don't we? I'd really like to know. In Switzerland, where they have a huge welfare state, designated druggie-parks,
etc., if you are not from a particular municipality, they ship you back. I don't know why Toronto can't do the same....
And Vancouver for that matter.
