Toronto Sun: Miller math and the myths

By: SUE-ANN LEVY, TORONTO SUN
Published: January 29, 2008
Source: Toronto Sun
To read the article in Toronto Star

Now I'm not really sure what terribly highbrow dictionary Mayor David Miller uses but in the one I regularly check -- my trusty Webster's -- "in line" means "in agreement with (a particular standard.)"

So when His Blondness insisted yesterday -- in his trademark dogmatic style -- that a proposed 3.75% tax hike this year is "in line" with inflation (as he'd promised in his election platform), I was left to wonder if he was talking about inflation in Israel (running at 4.25%) or in Europe (where inflation has hit 3.1%).

Surely he couldn't have meant Toronto. For as Statistics Canada reports, inflation in the city averaged 1.9% last year -- meaning the mayor's proposed tax hike is 97% higher, or double, what he promised.

"People understand that I meant modest property tax increases and I'm very pleased that I'm able to keep this commitment," Miller said, not at all pleased the media would dare question his inability to "hold the line" on taxes. Still, this was but one example of the "Miller Math and Myths" spun by the mayor and his six-figure bureaucrats as they unveiled their $8.2-billion work of art, aka the 2008 operating budget -- balanced for the first time in a decade.

"As a government, we have made difficult decisions over the past several months and are now starting to turn a corner," the mayor said.

(A $10,000 "communications" campaign -- consisting of slick ads on garbage bins and in transit shelters plus a dedicated website -- will ensure Toronto citizens get the message, over and over.)

'MODEST'

Never mind the "modest" property tax hike, which will bring $75 million into the city's coffers. What was abundantly clear is that the so-called sustainable and balanced budget is being propped up by taxpayers of various incarnations. There's the $175 million expected this year from the new land transfer and personal vehicle taxes (the former kicks in this Friday.) There's all kinds of new user fees and the TTC fare hikes as well.

There's a one-time $149-million bailout -- supposedly for transit -- courtesy of the taxpayers who fund Queen's Park. Some $100 million will be swallowed up by the operating budget and another $49-million will be used to pay off service charges on the ever-increasing debt. Only $57-million will be set aside for TTC infrastructure.

That leads me to one of the biggest myths. City officials were tripping over themselves trying to convince us that a "good piece" of all that the extra tax money will be used to make "critical investments" in infrastructure.

Yet when pressed, CFO Joe Pennachetti conceded that a mere $12 million will be dedicated to "city building initiatives" and it appears that so-called investment will only be used to enrich socialist pet projects. For example, there's $800,000 for a social marketing and local food campaign called Live Green Toronto and $500,000 more to expand the mayor's highly hyped Nuit Blanche event.

OVER TARGET

City manager Shirley Hoy couldn't say enough either about all the award-winning continuous improvement and other measures being undertaken to make her regime more efficient -- the second biggest myth perpetuated in this budget.

Of the 52 city departments, agencies and boards, some 39 came in above the 0% spending target set for the past two years. That included the mayor's office, which is seeking a 6.6% increase and ironically, the city's various offices of accountability which are looking to spend 23.4% more than last year.

We heard the cost containment measures launched last fall in the throes of a supposed fiscal crisis will save $73 million overall this year but that no new ones will be put in place. In fact, Hoy confirmed the number of staff will jump by 688, bringing the total number of city positions to 50,601.

Let's not forget that police and TTC workers are currently at the bargaining table, and negotiations with the mayor's buddies in the city's two powerful CUPE unions are set to commence in the fall.

Even the mayor conceded that the sustainable nature of the budget is very much contingent on those negotiations. Not that he'd ever hold the line on their demands.

But heck, why should we worry? It's all "in line" with some rate of inflation.