Is Eddie Smarter Than Hazel

Hazel McCallion has only been the Mayor of Mississauga forever. She has a reputation "for strict efficiency and for being careful with taxpayers' dollars."

My understanding as well is that her city is also debt-free.

The Mayor there imposed a 5 per cent tax surcharge on all property owners to help pay the costs for infrastructure improvements. That is in addition to whatever the normal tax increase will be which is expected to be around 3.9%.

What did our Mayor say about what she did:

• "Are you kidding me? The plan we have is working and we are not going to move away from that," Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis said Thursday.
  
  "We are just trying to get through our budget. We've got our own challenges. The economy is down and given all the local challenges we are trying to get as close to zero (tax increase) as possible."

Yes sir we have a great plan. According to the Treasurer:

• "Windsor needs about $230 million in roadwork alone, not to mention work on deteriorating sewers, sidewalks and bridges, Colucci said.
  
  To help address the crisis, the city started in 2002 with its own infrastructure levy -- one per cent every year. It has been rolled into the overall budget and included in any annual tax increases."

Hmmmm I think he just told us that the money was NOT used for crumbling infrastructure. And what did we spend our infrastructure levy on, which roads, sewers and watermains:

• "The city's levy works out to roughly $4 million each year and has been used to help fund major projects such as the new Huron Lodge, the west-end police training centre and the downtown city services building, Colucci said. "We are doing the prudent things we can do, but the problem is so big we need help to address our infrastructure deficit."

Yes sir, it's a great plan. As I told you Eddie wanted the GST money to help pay for the support for the Mexicans who came to Windsor recently and to help out Mr. Mancini with brochures.

Yes indeedie..........our plan is so great that when we needed money for WUC watermain infrastructure, we played politics....ooops it was the fault of the previous administration....we increased rates by 86%!

Yes, our Eddie is so much smarter than Hazel. Aren't we lucky that he is our Mayor.