Lessons of the Miller Years

[Glen]

Mel Lastman did not have a spending freeze -- he dug deep into City reserves to cover the shortfall from his tax policy.

I never said he did. I merely mentioned that some people point to Lastman's tax freeze while the real issue is revenue minus expenses. A tax freeze with expenses increasing by 3% is better than taxes going up by 2% and expenses increasing by 6%.

Guess what? Running a city worth living in requires spending. Cutting spending to the point where you are no longer providing good services is not good governance or fiscally responsible. Toronto's problem is not that it is providing too much service -- it's that people shriek like small children when they are asked to pay their share of living in a civil society.

Of course. Whenever I mention the fact that Toronto residents (not businesses) should pay higher taxes, the 'progressives' here come out with all sorts of convoluted logic to defend the status quo.

 

[GraphicMatt]

I don't think it's so much defending the status quo as realizing that no politician is ever going to jack up property taxes enough to allow for lower business taxes. Not unless they have no further interest in holding office.

 

[js97]

I don't think it's so much defending the status quo as realizing that no politician is ever going to jack up property taxes enough to allow for lower business taxes. Not unless they have no further interest in holding office.

So it really goes back to the balancing act of controlling expenses because revenue, despite the ability to raise it through taxes, is still not a real option if they want to remain in office.

I think people would have been okay witht the 60 dollar car registration tax if it went directly to funding capital TTC expansion, or at least tangible capital projects (at approx 46 Million a year). From the residents I've spoken to, the majority can live with the new taxes if the governent showed good and efficient use of it.

The Rob Ford support comes from the sentiment that spending was funnelled to select 'pet' projects that generally benefited unions and/or city insiders/planners. Ask anyone living north of eglinton what they think about Transit City, those opinions will be vastly different from the TC 'pushers', which generally live south of Bloor. Is there a disconnect there?

What I find really sinister and perhaps politically driven, are the approved capital project from the 2010 budget. They are all so back-end heavy in terms of funding that I don't see how they where even originally feasible.

From some waterfront projects, to the 4 level skating rink arena, to the St Lawerence market north revitalization project, etc.

Any mayor coming into power, (even if it's someone like Pantalone) would have had an impossible task of finding sustainable funding for many of the projects.


A well, we'll see what happens.

 

[ssiguy2]

Miller's spending and taxes look even worse than they are due to Queen's park actually having UPloaded some of the services the city had to pay for.

 

[GraphicMatt]

And yet still no one can look at the operating budget and point to major opportunities for savings.

 

[SlickFranky]

And yet still no one can look at the operating budget and point to major opportunities for savings.

Um, hello-oo...we're going to stop the Gravy Train. I heard that thing costs us a forune. And we're going to stop throwing retirement parties for Kyle Rae.

 

[GraphicMatt]

In retrospect the city's decision to power the subway system with gravy was a bad one.

 

[archanfel]

And yet still no one can look at the operating budget and point to major opportunities for savings.

The problem is people are always looking for "major" opportunities whereas enough "minor" opportunities would probably be all that is needed to stop the spiraling spending.

The new homeless shelter is probably a $3.3 million opportunity right there.

 

[OttoSchloss]

Here's a lesson for the left. Attack early and attack often. Give the public the impression that Ford is doing a horrible job, not cutting taxes fast enough or reneging on his promises. Blame him for cold snowy days, when you don't get what you want for Xmas or your failure to fart rainbows. Do all this regardless of the job he's actually doing and pretty soon you'll have everyone believing the city is going to hell and he's the worst mayor ever.

 

[archanfel]

Here's a lesson for the left. Attack early and attack often. Give the public the impression that Ford is doing a horrible job, not cutting taxes fast enough or reneging on his promises. Blame him for cold snowy days, when you don't get what you want for Xmas or your failure to fart rainbows. Do all this regardless of the job he's actually doing and pretty soon you'll have everyone believing the city is going to hell and he's the worst mayor ever.

And you think the left is above that? Ford is not officially mayor yet, the attacks have already started. And that's fair too.

 

[adma]

And you think the left is above that? Ford is not officially mayor yet, the attacks have already started. And that's fair too.

Heck, they were starting even before he was mayor. Though at least the left is less likely to express itself in Teabonics (except maybe Jon Stewart-ironically)

 

[GraphicMatt]

The problem is people are always looking for "major" opportunities whereas enough "minor" opportunities would probably be all that is needed to stop the spiraling spending.

The new homeless shelter is probably a $3.3 million opportunity right there.

I'm cool with minor savings too - let's have at it.

Of course the reality is that Miller gets criticized for taking the operating budget from 6 billion to 9 billion which would make one assume that people believe there's 3 billion dollars of waste there.

The new homeless shelter is a capital project. Do you think we could maybe save money by cutting programs for the homeless, like Streets to Homes?

 

[archanfel]

I'm cool with minor savings too - let's have at it.

Of course the reality is that Miller gets criticized for taking the operating budget from 6 billion to 9 billion which would make one assume that people believe there's 3 billion dollars of waste there.

The new homeless shelter is a capital project. Do you think we could maybe save money by cutting programs for the homeless, like Streets to Homes?

People are angry about the ever spiraling spending. It's the never ending increases itself that is alarming, not necessarily the actual number. People of Toronto is pretty forgiven. Even Ford only promised property taxes increase based on inflation, not an actual freeze.

The $3.3 million needed to run the shelter is not a capital project. Yes, I do think we can save a lot of money by cutting programs for homeless, social housing and social assistant. The principle should be the government will only assist people in distress through no faults of their own rather than bailing out people who made bad choices. Of course, we will need the provincial government on board for some of them.

 

[nfitz]

Yes, I do think we can save a lot of money by cutting programs for homeless, social housing and social assistant.

 

[syn]

People are angry about the ever spiraling spending. It's the never ending increases itself that is alarming, not necessarily the actual number. People of Toronto is pretty forgiven. Even Ford only promised property taxes increase based on inflation, not an actual freeze.

The $3.3 million needed to run the shelter is not a capital project. Yes, I do think we can save a lot of money by cutting programs for homeless, social housing and social assistant. The principle should be the government will only assist people in distress through no faults of their own rather than bailing out people who made bad choices. Of course, we will need the provincial government on board for some of them.

This will lead to a greater divde between the rich and the poor, along with even greater problems. You know what it will take to fix this? Even more money...