That surprised me as well. I expected Miller to really take a stand.
Why? By all accounts Miller and McGuinty had a quid pro quo agreement the instant the Transit City funding announcement was put out. The province overnight offered to take up about $2B of capital expenses the city was expecting to deal with.
Miller, Hazel, etc. were probably told to either shut-up or quietly endorse McGuinty otherwise they wouldn't get that, particularly if McGuinty didn't get re-elected.
The province later offered $1B in uploads and the possibility of more in February.
Considering McGuinty only has about $14B to play with over 4 years and the electorate wants healthcare and education improvements, those city investments are a pretty significant chunk of change.
In reality, McGuinty was already offering the best case scenario. Complaining would simply create bad blood.
Besides, Toronto was specifically told to make sacrifices before coming back for more help. Other municipalities have been raising taxes significantly every year, we should be too. Miller (and council as a whole) knew that. Not picking up the new taxes removed our ability to complain.
