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Rob Ford's Toronto

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GraphicMatt said:
Ford's budget is shaping up to look very challenging. Cutting the car tax on Jan 1 is apparently going to cost $64 million. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...x-is-axed-on-jan-1/article1829201/?cmpid=rss1



That's a $285 million shortfall. Without a property tax increase, where's the cash going to come from?
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Does that include the $130 million involved in cancelling Transit City? :p

With Ford freezing property taxes he's really going to have no excuse if they have trouble balancing the budget. I think the fact that he implemented a tax freeze, however, will keep him in people's good books for a while no matter how things go.

It's been quite obvious all along that his numbers make no sense.

I'm curious how things will go next year when a lot of union contracts with the city are up. His 1st year is going to be a pivotal one.
 
^His numbers aren't supposed to make sense. It's called starve the beast. The objective is to engineer a fiscal crisis in order to justify shrinking government.

It is the opposite of stuffing the beast, where the objective is to expand government but retain surpluses in order to give the impression of fiscal prudence.

Either way the loser is the city and it's citizens. It is becoming more and more clear that Ford does not intend to bring balance back to the city. He intends to be the anti-Miller, or rather he wants to out Miller Miller.

It's unfortunate because he is setting up the city for another wild oscillation to the left.
 
TrickyRicky said:
^His numbers aren't supposed to make sense. It's called starve the beast. The objective is to engineer a fiscal crisis in order to justify shrinking government.

It is the opposite of stuffing the beast, where the objective is to expand government but retain surpluses in order to give the impression of fiscal prudence.

Either way the loser is the city and it's citizens. It is becoming more and more clear that Ford does not intend to bring balance back to the city. He intends to be the anti-Miller, or rather he wants to out Miller Miller.

It's unfortunate because he is setting up the city for another wild oscillation to the left.
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I know, but I'm not referring to his current city numbers, but the numbers he presented in his campaign. He hasn't really explained where he'll find any of it.
 
Holding a long meeting with no coffee ... that hardly seems right (though today's were quite short, I believe)

We certainly would never do such a thing in the private sector. It doesn't seem right to subject the public sector to such stuff.
 
Way to go Rob. You can balance the budget by withholding coffee. Maybe you want to cut back on the doughnuts too ...
 
GraphicMatt said:
Ford's budget is shaping up to look very challenging. Cutting the car tax on Jan 1 is apparently going to cost $64 million. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...x-is-axed-on-jan-1/article1829201/?cmpid=rss1



That's a $285 million shortfall. Without a property tax increase, where's the cash going to come from?
Click to expand...

If he employs the Lastman strategy of hiking corporate rates, raising user fees, and raiding the reserves, he can close most of that gap. Especially if the province agrees to throw in a few million.

The advantage Lastman had was a three year term. You can burn the reserves and delay spending for a few years, and Lastman did so for his first term and then got reelected. Of course those tactics just delay things, and Lastman was eventually forced to go for a massive tax hike. Can Ford play financial Jenga for 4 years? It'll be interesting to see him try.
 
On the campaign trail Ford called for commercial taxes to be set at a level below the 905. He hasn't spoken much about that since getting elected, and it would open a huge gap in the budget.

Ford isn't a fiscal conservative, he's a populist (As calls for unneeded police and subways prove). If it comes down to a choice between raising commercial or residential taxes, he's likely to pick the latter.

He didn't get much support from Toronto's business community in his run, and he raised less money than any of the major candidates, so he also doesn't owe them anything.
 
SimonP said:
On the campaign trail Ford called for commercial taxes to be set at a level below the 905. He hasn't spoken much about that since getting elected, and it would open a huge gap in the budget.

Ford isn't a fiscal conservative, he's a populist (As calls for unneeded police and subways prove). If it comes down to a choice between raising commercial or residential taxes, he's likely to pick the latter.

He didn't get much support from Toronto's business community in his run, and he raised less money than any of the major candidates, so he also doesn't owe them anything.
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That's all I need. My residential rent to go up that much more.
 
Yes, I too recall the incident where Paula Fletcher in an invited speech yelled at a constituent and then the mayor shook her hand and said 'That was great!'
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js97 said:
I think that was his point....
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20268_294766697187_294765962187_3378775_5132761_n.jpg



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