Eddie's Grand Vision

I figured it out finally. It all came together like a bolt out of the blue. I understand what is going in his mind now. I can explain everything that seem so absurd to us mere mortals and taxpayers but are all part of his grand over-all scheme of things. And if taxpayers suffer in the interim, well as they say, short-term pain for long-term gain.

One really does need to be able to do in-depth Internet searching if one wants to do big exposés to keep one's readership interested. It is not that Bloggers are lonely; it is that we spend so much time researching sources that we do not have the time to socialize. It is a tough life.

As an example, in doing my online reading of dozens of newspapers all over the world to find interesting items, I found the following in a Timmins, Ontario newspaper:

• "Sorbara offers experts, not cash, to help cities
  Saturday, July 21, 2007
  
  Ontario Finance Minister Greg Sorbara is throwing struggling municipalities a lifeline - but not by writing a cheque or by letting municipalities keep more of their own property-tax dollars.
  
  In a move critics are calling patronizing and unnecessary, Sorbara said the province would be happy to send in professional number crunchers to help municipalities like Toronto that are grappling with budget deficits or hefty tax hikes to balance their books.
  
  "Rather than make quick, poorly thought-out decisions, the better course would be to engage the province," Sorbara said, adding the province has experts who could help municipalities find savings.
  
  "The province has got a great deal of experience in value-for-money audits to determine whether or not we are achieving the kind of values we want for the money that we're spending."
  
  

Now I thought that was very kind and decent of the Finance Minister. But that was not the reason why this story caught my interest. Let me add on the interesting part:

• "Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis said his city has already moved to zero-based budgeting and has managed to slash its debt in half over the last three years. This year, the city is looking at all its services from "A to Z" in search of cuts to its $1-billion budget, Francis said.
  
  "We're at a tipping point. We've gone to the wall as much as we can to cut to the bone. ... They can send all the experts they want. The experts will come to the same conclusion."
  
  The simple fact is municipalities should not be paying for provincial programs like disability support, welfare and social housing through the property-tax base, Francis said. Whenever an automaker lays off employees, Francis said the social services cost increases, but the property-tax base doesn't.
  
  Windsor - like most other municipalities in Ontario - doesn't even have the new taxing powers the province gave only to Toronto to raise more revenue, he added.
  
  "It's not sustainable," Francis said."

Wait a minute...a billion dollar budget! Last time I looked, our 2007 operating budget was around $310M while the 2007 capital budget was $75M. That adds up to around $400M. How the heck are we going to add on $600M to get to a billion?

I read something in the Star coverage of our budget discussions:

• "Windsor's tax rates are higher in many categories than the provincial average, but that is offset by local property assessments which are lower than most municipalities, Colucci said."

I then got a sharp pain on my pocketbook that almost required calling 911 or is it 311, I keep forgetting. I re-read what the Mayor said about the taxing authority Toronto will get but which we do not have...yet. He wants to be able to tax us more as they do in Toronto!

So don't you see now....Eddie wants to be in the big leagues of budget spending. He has three more years to go to get us up to a billion dollar budget. Now you can understand why he wants to do so many expensive projects. He needs a huge spending binge. As was said in the Henderson column the day after the last election:

• "the next term can be "about making the investments we want and building the city we want."

Sure , like huge and costly investments in projects like the following ones. Eddie will build them and then depart as Mayor as we have to pay for them.

• city beautification



• "shovel-ready" land at the airport



• $US 75M Tunnel deal with Detroit



• Schwartz border extravaganza



• East end arena at $65M and counting



• $15M plus University Engineering complex



• Zalev brownfields redevelopment

It's hardly a surprise that the arena is delayed again....Eddie can escape the blame for its cost and operating losses by saying that when he was here as Mayor, it was projected NOT to cost us any money.

You may want to read this excerpt from the Toronto Star and its Mayor David Miller to see what our future might be like UNLESS our Council stops acting like wusses:

• "In the eight months between his overwhelming victory over challenger Jane Pitfield last November and the start of the final council meeting last Monday, Miller had carved out a strong executive committee, convinced the province to endorse his plan to install streetcars in parts of Toronto ill-served by public transit, bought a new garbage dump, established ambitious climate change targets, launched a highly publicized national campaign for a share of the federal GST and helped set up a new garbage collection scheme. Things were marching along better than he could have hoped.
  
  "I had a very different vision than my opponent in the last election," Miller said over a lunch at a west-end restaurant two weeks ago, a time that seems much simpler in the context of the latest budget battles. "I was elected and the people expect me to implement that vision, and that's what I'm doing."
  
  But any chance for the mayor to spend his summer basking in glory was shot down this week when the budget crisis blew up in his face. Instead of a pliant council, he's now faced with a revolt from some of the middle-of-the-roaders who helped him implement that ambitious agenda in the first half of the year.
  
  Many councillors suggest Miller should have seen the TTC funding crisis coming and that council would have approved the $356 million in new taxes on Monday had there been talk of subway closings.
  
  "It looks like he put together these budget cuts on the back of a napkin," charged frequent critic Denzil Minnan-Wong, councillor for Ward 34, Don Valley East. "And it's just poor management. He knew this was coming. He knew this before the election. And he should have told us about the tax increases or the service cuts before the election.
  
  "So either he was lying to the voters or he didn't know and he's sending us over a cliff. What this is showing is he's just not up to the job. It's managerial incompetence..."
  
  Critics suggest spending at city hall is out of control, noting that Miller pledged to keep property tax hikes in line with inflation but heaped a 3.8 per cent increase on taxpayers' backs earlier this year. Not to mention the attempt to levy $356 million in land transfer taxes and vehicle registration fees.
  
  Miller doesn't apologize for his attempts to raise new revenues.
  
  "We're at a moment today where we need to choose to invest in the city, to invest in things like Transit City, poor neighbourhoods, the fight against climate change and in fixing our roads," he said recently. "If you look at our competitor cities, they're investing massively.
  
  "My mandate in the election, taken broadly, was about ensuring that Toronto moves forward and took its proper place in world, which is about being prosperous economically, about being liveable and it's about being a place where opportunity is available for everyone. You can't make that happen without investing."
  
  Miller said he was clear in last fall's election campaign that he'd use new powers granted by the province to levy taxes. "It's true I wasn't specific (about the level of taxes or what would be taxed) but ... I didn't know what the regulations would be or what we would be able to tax. But I was very clear that I'd use the City of Toronto act for public policy purposes..."
  
  Asked if there was anything he could have done to improve the climate this term, Miller shook his head. "We have a system now where the mayor has more responsibility, and I think there's been a reaction by some to that."
  
  Councillor Brian Ashton, who was named to the executive committee but earned the wrath of Miller's supporters this week when he voted to defer the new tax plan, said Miller hasn't reached out to council members.
  
  Ashton said he was involved in the process that gave the mayor the new powers. "I understand a certain degree of commitment to his programming is needed. But there also is supposed to be a commitment to make the executive a truly functioning, hard-hitting debating forum, and I don't know that we've been successful in that area."
  
  Miller often says party politics have no place at the municipal level. But Councillor Karen Stintz (Ward 16, Eglinton-Lawrence) said that, given the strong-mayor system Toronto now seems to have, there might be no choice.
  
  "There are supposed to be checks and balances in the system," she said.
  
  "If you try to build a consensus, that's not as critical. But if the mayor is going to go it alone, the opposition might have to form an actual party."