So there is no war on children. The mayor has come riding to the rescue, taken childrens’ nutrition programs and the closure of 12 community centre programs run jointly with the Toronto District School Board off the list of cuts for this budget go-around. I suppose we should all rejoice?
Politically, there were always going to be trade-offs. And blowback on Ford-friendly members of council on these two issues in particular, not to mention the optics of taking food from poor kids’ mouths, were too much to chance having a knock ‘em down, and drag ‘em out debate on the council floor. Besides, the mayor could use some good PR right about now.
But before we lose sight of the bottom line, a dose of cruel reality. Where the 2012 budget is concerned, the mayor can’t stake his claim to delivering on his election promise of Respect for Taxpayers. He’s only increased the tax burden on families when you add up the cost of cuts in services and increases in user fees being proposed.
So while boasting that he’s been able to keep the proposed property tax increase of to 2.5 per cent below the rate of inflation (a very high rate of inflation it should be noted), the actual financial hit for taxpayers amounts to less money in their pockets.
According to one analysis released by a coalition of community groups Thursday, the added financial burden for an average family of four in cuts to services and increases in user fees and transit will be just under $800 this year.
Another analysis conducted by CUPE shows the cost of the cuts to the typical family is in the order of $1,283.
Respect for Taxpayers? That election promise is beginning to look a little like the one about the gravy train. The Ford admin has kept its promise to spend less. But is sticking us with the bill for its austerity program.
There is a $154 million surplus, it was revealed in budget documents released Thursday. “Good news for taxpayers,” the mayor says. But that money is being put in a reserve fund for capital projects. Not an altogether bad idea, if in fact the money will be used for transit projects and is not being stashed for some future use – like a property tax freeze in the run-up to the 2014 election to make the mayor look good.
A portion of the surplus could be used to offset the sting of cuts this year. About $36 million would be needed to cover the costs of cuts and user fee increases.
But relief is unlikely to come, just so Ford can say he’s holding the line. Why bother spending when you can stick taxpayers with the bill, right?
The Fordists fancy themselves fiscal conservatives, but what is nailing people with user fees through the backdoor if not a tax increase by another name?
Remember that bit about the city not having a revenue problem? The Fordists are digging deep into their bag of financial tricks, to increase the city’s revenue stream in some unusual ways.
Among the proposals being contemplated are plans to charge 905ers extra for parking, doubling fines for vehicles illegally parked during rush hours, and studying a proposal to license cyclists to raise a few bucks.
Cash grab? Some of the mayor’s friends in the conservative press think so. I have to agree.
Is ticketing a few more vehicles who hog the curb lane really going to improve gridlock problem? No. If this Ford admin were serious about that they’d institute road tolls, or expand transit services. But tolls look like a tax, so that won’t fly.
The proposal to license cyclists is more problematic. It’s being pushed as a way to promote safety, with all those cyclists supposedly mowing down pedestrians on sidewalks etc… But if the Fordists were concerned with safety they wouldn’t be removing bike lanes and costing taxpayers more in the process. They’d be building more bike infrastructure. But that’s another story.
The bureaucracy alone to establish and maintain a testing and licensing regime for the city’s nearly one million bike riders (that’s not counting those under the age of 16) would be a massive and expensive undertaking. A 2005 budget briefing note to council on the subject noted as much. The Fordists have shown themselves adept at cutting willy-nilly, but imaginative financing seems not to be this regime’s forte.
That $60 vehicle registration tax that was repealed to prove the Ford mantra Toronto has a spending problem, not a revenue problem, is looking pretty sensible when considering the death by a thousands cuts of the 2012 budget.
