How's your quality of life though? I've only lived in Toronto for 4 years now and honestly, if you've lived elsewhere and move here you'll be amazed at not just the services (my hometown of 50,000 people doesn't have a single community centre and I can count on one hand the number of parks in the city that aren't school yards) that are available but the quality of life people have here. Unfortunately, it means you have to pay taxes, but I'd be willing to wager that a substantial decrease in your taxes would result in a correspondingly substantial decrease in the quality of this city. it's none of my business how much you pay, but what percentage of what you currently pay would you deem fair considering the services you and other Torontonians receive? We also live in a country where we believe in a certain level of socialism, which I think we should be proud of. It's because of that that this city is very safe, welcoming and vibrant. I actually look forward to making enough money where I'll be able to own a house and in turn make my contribution. Even in the 4 years I've been here the city has grown immensely and i've seen my own quality of life go up simply because of the efforts of the city. Perhaps that sounds absurd to you, but go live in a place like Welland for a year (if you're not utterly depressed by it in a few months) and I guarentee you'll be thankful you're paying for such a city to exist.
Also, we're talking about a multi-billion dollar corporation and when you're dealing with something that large, there will always be extras thrown in the budget, but things like funds for councillor's offices are so minute in the grand scheme of things that they don't really even register and to be honest, I expect that some tax dollars (at every level) will go to things like, you know, pizza lunches to boost staff morale. This idea that you should get out exactly what you put in is so far from reality, yet so easy for those who are "champions of the taxpayer" to bleet that I kinda have to role my eyes at it whenever people or politicians bring up things like that.
EDIT: I'll add, I guess all of this makes me not understand what people are angry about. It's not like Toronto is a horrible place to live in, nor is it even close to it. Toronto is an awesome city to live in and from what I've seen the city seems to have taken considerable steps forward over the last ten years since amalgamation. I spent my summers here from 2004 to 2006 before moving here in 2007 and I've seen so much growth and so many improvements in those 6 years that I just don't understand the anger. Are people really that angry about a garbage strike and people making a decent living wage? I'm not. You know, every city has its issues, but ours are of the good kind and all stem from a desire to become a greater city. I'm pretty thankful that we don't have the issues of a Cleveland or a Detroit and so on. All the backlash just seems so contrived and someone from outside this city must think that this place must have become a shithole over the last couple years based on all this anger. I just don't get it.
