b13
New Member
It looks like the NDP actually care about cities especially Toronto because not only are they going to upload the downloaded services they are also going to freeze transit fares and pay for transit city!!
NDP's city relief just pie in sky
Aug 17, 2007 04:30 AM
Royson James
Those among you who want a great city without paying an extra dime in taxes should run out, secure an NDP party membership and get ready to vote New Democrat in the October provincial election.
The NDP this week announced its plan to rescue municipalities from fiscal ruin. The proposal – costing some $3.6 billion – is the kind of total victory for cities and towns that urbanists have been salivating over for more than two decades since the province put municipalities on a shoestring budget.
The plan, to be staged between 2008 and 2015, exceeds every mayor's wildest dream. And you know what they say about anything that sounds too good to be true.
But let's dream. Should Howard Hampton become premier, Christmas would come early every year till 2015; then gift-receiving season would become a daily fixture.
For starters, a two-year freeze on transit fares, effective 2008.
Next, he'd pick up half the operating cost of running the TTC, some $110 million next year, his researchers say. (Caution. The TTC wants to spend an extra $100 million in 2008 on new service, so the NDP may want to plan for an extra $50 million in provincial costs.)
Mad at the devilish practice of forcing municipalities to assume provincial services without the money to pay for them? Hampton would end that. And where the province now pays only a portion of the costs, Hampton will pay his full share. This would end the sniping over court security costs, child care per diems and other arcane relationships that have spawned distrust and political spats between the two governments.
By 2011, Hampton would take back the costs of the Ontario Disability Support Program and Ontario Drug Benefit, two outrageous costs downloaded to cities – worth $175 million to Toronto alone.
Then, phased in to 2015, assuming he survives the first term without bankrupting the treasury, Hampton would do the mother of all fiscal recalibration – assume the full costs of social housing, welfare payments, public health, ambulance and child care. Cost? $2.2 billion across the province and nearly $500 million for Toronto.
That's a total of about $900 million to Toronto out of the $3.6 billion province-wide. In essence, after begrudging Toronto a bailout and saying the city was whining, Ontario municipalities would benefit from Toronto's advocacy.
But that's not all. The billions of dollars the province gave and promised cities for transit will stay. This includes gas-tax revenues, operating transit budget relief, and the fanciful Transit City vision.
Now, the cherry on top.
While everyone talks about how the province downloaded costs onto the cities, few remember Ontario relieved Toronto of $500 million of education costs. Or that subsequent fixes made the 1998 swap in services almost revenue neutral.
So, will the NDP send those education costs back to the city?
There is no plan to "repeal" those uploads, NDP researcher Ethan Phillips said yesterday.
"We would be able to manage," said Toronto city manager Shirley Hoy, yesterday, in a masterful understatement.
But could the province afford such a largesse? "Absolutely," said Phillips. "We'll release the details."
Meanwhile, Premier Dalton McGuinty will likely unveil a much more modest proposal Monday in Ottawa. Ontarians will have no problem affording McGuinty's plan because it won't go far enough in fixing the fiscal mess.
Over to you John Tory and the Conservatives. The anticipation is killing us.
NDP's city relief just pie in sky
Aug 17, 2007 04:30 AM
Royson James
Those among you who want a great city without paying an extra dime in taxes should run out, secure an NDP party membership and get ready to vote New Democrat in the October provincial election.
The NDP this week announced its plan to rescue municipalities from fiscal ruin. The proposal – costing some $3.6 billion – is the kind of total victory for cities and towns that urbanists have been salivating over for more than two decades since the province put municipalities on a shoestring budget.
The plan, to be staged between 2008 and 2015, exceeds every mayor's wildest dream. And you know what they say about anything that sounds too good to be true.
But let's dream. Should Howard Hampton become premier, Christmas would come early every year till 2015; then gift-receiving season would become a daily fixture.
For starters, a two-year freeze on transit fares, effective 2008.
Next, he'd pick up half the operating cost of running the TTC, some $110 million next year, his researchers say. (Caution. The TTC wants to spend an extra $100 million in 2008 on new service, so the NDP may want to plan for an extra $50 million in provincial costs.)
Mad at the devilish practice of forcing municipalities to assume provincial services without the money to pay for them? Hampton would end that. And where the province now pays only a portion of the costs, Hampton will pay his full share. This would end the sniping over court security costs, child care per diems and other arcane relationships that have spawned distrust and political spats between the two governments.
By 2011, Hampton would take back the costs of the Ontario Disability Support Program and Ontario Drug Benefit, two outrageous costs downloaded to cities – worth $175 million to Toronto alone.
Then, phased in to 2015, assuming he survives the first term without bankrupting the treasury, Hampton would do the mother of all fiscal recalibration – assume the full costs of social housing, welfare payments, public health, ambulance and child care. Cost? $2.2 billion across the province and nearly $500 million for Toronto.
That's a total of about $900 million to Toronto out of the $3.6 billion province-wide. In essence, after begrudging Toronto a bailout and saying the city was whining, Ontario municipalities would benefit from Toronto's advocacy.
But that's not all. The billions of dollars the province gave and promised cities for transit will stay. This includes gas-tax revenues, operating transit budget relief, and the fanciful Transit City vision.
Now, the cherry on top.
While everyone talks about how the province downloaded costs onto the cities, few remember Ontario relieved Toronto of $500 million of education costs. Or that subsequent fixes made the 1998 swap in services almost revenue neutral.
So, will the NDP send those education costs back to the city?
There is no plan to "repeal" those uploads, NDP researcher Ethan Phillips said yesterday.
"We would be able to manage," said Toronto city manager Shirley Hoy, yesterday, in a masterful understatement.
But could the province afford such a largesse? "Absolutely," said Phillips. "We'll release the details."
Meanwhile, Premier Dalton McGuinty will likely unveil a much more modest proposal Monday in Ottawa. Ontarians will have no problem affording McGuinty's plan because it won't go far enough in fixing the fiscal mess.
Over to you John Tory and the Conservatives. The anticipation is killing us.