Sue-Ann Levy- Hiring freeze?

Sue Ann Levy- Who's minding the store?

Adscam, Cricketgate and this- seems to be a cavalier attitude towards taxpayers' money.

Lorrie Goldstein: Audit them all

"For the public, it's because they see many councillors acting as if there's only a crisis for everybody else, not them. If Miller and his allies want the public to accept their talk that Toronto faces a fiscal crisis, they first have to walk the walk by setting a personal example of restraint.

Instead, they've rejected rollbacks of their own salaries and perks proposed by their more frugal colleagues, which brings us to our final point.

Bizarrely, councillors Rob Ford and Doug Holyday are being investigated by the city's auditor general and integrity commissioner for not spending enough money after council voted 24-14 in favour of the probes. In light of Ruryk and Levy's findings, it's now mandatory those investigations be expanded to all councillors, so taxpayers will know they are all above reproach when it comes to office spending.

Anything less is simply unacceptable."

Subway lines

City Horror warnings came in '03................

The Board of Trade and Canadian Taxpayers Federation,CFIB, etc should second some financial expertise to the City Council for a while.Perhaps they should also look at some of the contracts.$20 million wasted here, $10 million there and it soon adds up to real money.If they knew they were in a tight squeeze why did they ask for $6 million to fix up offices at City Hall ( lowered to $2.9 million- for how many square feet?) and $16 million to refurbish Nathan Phillips Square- millions of taxpayers' money as chump change? They weren't necessities like police, fire and paramedics.



e.g.To save about 5 minutes travel time.......
style="font-weight:bold;">http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:_5ULPOedAKwJ:transit.toronto.on.ca/archives/data/200512120857.shtml+streetcar+and+%2495+million&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=ca

http://www.toronto.ca/ttc/pdf/streetcar_stclair.pdf

http://www.nowtoronto.com/issues/2004-04-15/news_insight.php

"Fear monger' Miller shakes councillors"......................

Asked if the tough talk could drive moderates like himself and Milczyn into the arms of council conservatives, Ashton replied: "Well, he could, and that's a problem.

"And the biggest issue is, I can't believe the depth of discontent in the broader public, and it's all based on credibility. They don't have any trust in this government at all, and I don't know how you can convince the province to meet its own responsibility and craft a long-term fiscal plan for Toronto without the public trusting your own city."

Toronto taxes-if it moves or doesn't move or if it breathes- tax it??

Strapped for cash?

http://www.torontosun.com/News/TorontoAndGTA/2007/07/18/4348218-sun.html

More here

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/editorialsletters/story.html?id=4d1c2f98-0fab-4bbd-ac8f-47fe22eb0dcd

Vote On New Taxes Deferred Until October

Mayor David Miller's controversial new tax plan wasn't voted down Monday, but it still took a sizeable hit. After a day of furious debate and deliberation, Toronto councillors have put off a vote on the controversial tax hike until the fall.

Despite pleas from the mayor, a backlash from constituents had many of local representatives insisting the right move was to wait until the next municipal election. Whether that can sit that long, only time will tell.


Of course they could have brought this up prior to the last Municipal election if the situation was so dire.They didn't put it on the front burner in the fall and decided to wait until a more convenient time-after an election. It's a good thing the Real Estate Board, Board of Trade, Canadian Taxpayers Federation, the CAA and taxpayers challenged this.Now perhaps they will clean up their house before they go looking for more money-there's only one taxpayer paying the full freight.Perhaps those entities can provide some helpful hints on ways to save money without reducing services since members of Council haven't been using a sharp enough pencil.

New taxes should wait until next election: poll

Are they still going to spend $16 million to refurbish Nathan Phillips Square?

"Survey results showed:

69 per cent said they want open debate ahead of the next election on the new taxes.
50 per cent said city hall has no authorization to go ahead with the taxes before the election.
69 per cent said if the province doesn't provide funding, they want the city to cut expenditures rather than impose new taxes.
86 per cent who voted for Miller say there was little to no discussion of new taxes in the 2006 election.
39 per cent of Miller supporters say they would be less likely to support a candidate in favour of the proposed taxes."

Sue -Ann Levy-hunting city's pet projects

"The truth is, in my nine years covering the goings-on at City Hall, I've never seen things in such a disastrous state. Nothing short of a monstrous Mad-Vac will sweep clean the wasteful practices, duplication and sheer arrogance of some city workers.

I can't help but wonder if this service planning review is a giant PR exercise to try to make the mayor look good on the eve of a council meeting at which his controversial City of Toronto Act taxes are expected to be passed -- although Pennachetti vehemently denied this yesterday.

As for getting a handle on the city's core services -- which I've proposed for years now -- it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that city officials should be focusing their limited resources on making sure they get garbage pickup right, that the parks are clean and inviting and citizens feel safe to walk in their neighbourhoods."

Lorrie Goldstein-........Toronto needs truth in taxation

Toronto is setting a bad precedent ( the new Act was like giving a pyromaniac a match and hoping he wouldn't use it)

"Only a little more than a quarter of Toronto's spending goes to core services, such as police, fire, roads, garbage, transit and parks and recreation. The other 75% goes to non-essential services and projects. Yet despite this imbalance between essential and non-essential line items, Mayor David Miller has managed to raise spending nearly 30% in his first four years in office".

http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20070618/city_taxes_070618/20070618?hub=TorontoHome

Toronto Board of Trade- Poll Shows Opposition to New Toronto Taxes

A new Decima Research survey, conducted for the Toronto Board of Trade, shows 61% of area residents oppose the City's proposed eight new taxes. The study of more than 1,000 consumers across the GTA also indicates that the new taxes would change consumer habits and result in lost sales for Toronto businesses.


"The results underline what the business community has been saying about these taxes," says Board of Trade President & CEO Carol Wilding, "They will harm Toronto businesses by increasing costs and reducing sales. The bottom line will be a direct hit to Toronto's economy and competitiveness..........."

City zoo- meanwhile some associations better keep an eye on their new revenue tools

Donato- they have a spending problem but want to extract more through "revenue tools"-flim flam for taxes

Sue- Ann Levy- City Taxes

"Minnan-Wong told the committee this "ill-conceived" idea will result in the largest tax hike in the history of the city and an "unprecedented effort by the mayor and his regime to tax everything that moves" in this city.

Coun. Karen Stintz said the scheme will drastically reduce the six-bag limit for households every two weeks to one bag and charge householders more when they've already responded very well to the green bin program.

"We're reducing service and charging people more," she said. "This is a way of increasing taxes more than the rate of inflation without being honest to the taxpayer."

Linda Leatherdale- City taxes

Apparently money was no object since they probably figured there was more where that came from

"Council OKs $4.7M to buy building for shelter

"There have been concerns by councillors and business people in the area that the city is paying too much for the property.

Councillor Adam Vaughan, who represents the area, said there's no doubt that the city could have made a better deal."

By coincidence.........

http://www.torontosun.com/News/TorontoAndGTA/2007/05/26/4209808-sun.html

"Street parking up 50 cents
Hike will put another $6M a year into city coffers"

Where's the CAA? the auto companies? Board of Trade?

"When 17,000 cars a day use a major north-south road, only in Toronto would the car-killer city council vote to narrow it"

Slogans and "revenue tools" = taxpayers' lighter wallets

"If the city's gridlock was in check, if the fiscal coffers were not bone dry, if the streets were as clean and litter-free as King of Denial claims they are, if Toronto was running like a lean machine, he could spend all the time he likes playing footsie with the environmental elite and pushing changes to one's carbon footprint.

But as has become clear, the Emperor has no clothes. Miller is deluding himself if he thinks Toronto's taxpayers aren't aware of that fact."

There's a spending problem

"Taxes are a hard sell.

That's the message that has come through loud and clear at the city's two public meetings on new taxes Toronto councillors can now impose on such things as booze and movie tickets.

More than 130 people turned out for the city's latest encounter with the public last night at Etobicoke Collegiate Institute on Montgomery Rd.

"I don't believe there's a revenue problem, I believe there's a spending problem and I think you need to get that under control," said John Collins, a retired civil servant."

"Revenue Tools"

http://www.torontosun.com/News/Columnists/Granatstein_Rob/2007/05/16/4183917.html

A Facebook group, No New Taxes Toronto, has popped up to fight the city's new taxing tools. No surprise to see who is on the list. Among the 26 members so far, it's all the regular political operatives you'd expect -- Taxpayer Federation bosses past and present, Tasha Kheiriddin and Kevin Gaudet, former National Citizens Coalition leader Gerry Nicholls, Tory MPP Tim Hudak, Liberal blogger Jason Cherniak, former Sun columnist Michael Taube ... you get the picture. It will be interesting to see if this one catches fire. So far, 144 people signed the petition at stopthetax.ca.

If it breathes, tax it?? Ratepayer associations better start paying attention since Municipal taxation is heading into the harrassment area

"If Vaughan gets his way -- and trust me with Mayor David Miller and his money-hungry minions at the helm he will -- bar, theatre and movie patrons could soon be taxed for lining up on public sidewalks.

Vaughan's request is on the agenda of Wednesday's public works committee meeting. In his letter to the committee, he asks that licensing staff prepare a report on a new permit scheme, er, tax, for "licensed entertainment facilities" that regularly use public sidewalks for queuing"

But $3 million for office reno and $16 million for Nathan Phillips Square is OK??? They have a spending problem.

Municipal budget- apparently they used dull pencils

"Judging from your e-mails yesterday and the more than 1,000 e-mails and calls Ford received, people are fed up with the freeloading.

They are tired of the parking assassins having zero tolerance against them and the constant attack on the family budget. They are tired of their mayor and council getting giant raises when they are not running on budget, free baseball, concerts, golf, TTC, parking, gas, cellphones, food and free passes to the CNE and the Toronto Zoo. (Still waiting for a councillor or mayor to offer a zoo pass for Indire Singh and her son, Ryan, who live next door to the zoo but have never been).

The truth is that to a majority of the people in this city all of those things mentioned above are luxuries. "

More here:

http://www.torontosun.com/Comment/Commentary/2007/04/27/4133648.html

Toronto budget- didn't hear much about bankruptcy in the last municipal election campaign-so much for truth in advertising

"If they weren't raiding reserves, Holyday says, council actually would have to raise taxes by close to 24 per cent.

"A group of 10th graders could do just as good a job of raiding piggy banks as this group."

Ratepayers Associations have no choice but to get involved in this process- it's a matter of self preservation or watching your wallet carefully because others won't.

Just " a little bit" bankrupt?? They probably need some adult supervision when it comes to the budget. As for the City/Province "dispute"-....

there's only one taxpayer who pays the full freight, so enough with the buck passing.



"True enough. Still, is it any wonder the King of Denial has led this city, in my view, if not to the precipice of bankruptcy, into virtual receivership?

I'd hardly call a property tax 100% higher than what he promised a "little bit," let alone in the range of the current inflation rate. I'm hoping Miller didn't pick up this kind of "dexterity" in math at Harvard.

But seriously, his claims made it all the more clear why city spending jumped 21% during the mayor's first term, why the city debt has risen by $1.1-billion to $2.63-billion and why the city's costs are careening out of control. "

City about to go broke, staff say- It's time for Ratepayer Associations, Taxpayer Federations and the Board of Trade

to monitor the budget and taxes at Council meetings.When they can still spend $3 million for renovations on offices and $16 million on Nathan Phillips Square, they apparently haven't scrutinized the line items very hard- and yes there is plenty to handle the basic services- it's the wish list that needs careful scrutiny.


more background here

Hands in your wallets

"When it comes to new taxes, Mayor David Miller told the business community very simply on Wednesday: "Don't be afraid."

Be very afraid.

And homeowners, that goes for you, too.

Unless Miller -- and his Harvard economics education -- knows where the magical pot of gold is buried, the city is headed toward tax torture -- user fees, property tax hikes and, of course, new "revenue tools" that could kick in this summer. There's a $71-million budget hole this year that must be filled, even after the city nearly empties its reserve funds. Next year? You don't want to know".

"In the little more than four months since being returned to office, David Miller has managed to dream up 10 new revenue tools, er, tax schemes

(to bail out his spendthrift regime)..........."

Says Holyday: "We're talking about new fees but we won't do what's staring us in the face."

"These guys are looking for every way to tax anything that moves while not living within their means," adds Del Grande. "Why would they stop with garbage?"