One of the problems I didn't anticipate when deciding to write a blog about Toronto's city hall under the current administration was having too many things to write about. I mean, I knew there would be a lot of "material" but, I didn't expect it to fly so fast and so frequently. This problem becomes exacerbated when I go a few days without blogging. When I sat down to write something a few times recently, I had such a huge backlog of articles and issues to deal with that I didn't know which "ball to catch first" so to speak. So, I'm going to try and go for just one. The blunt force Rob Ford is using to ram his budget through.
With an emphasis on getting the city's financial house in order, it was always strange that Ford's first real act as mayor was cancelling the Vehicle Registration Tax. As I wrote at the time, the Vehicle registration tax was a mere pittance. $5 per month was hardly going to break the bank for anyone who could afford to drive a car. The most specious argument I kept hearing was what about the poor guy who has 3 cars? I'm sorry, but boofuckinghoo. If you own 3 cars, $15 per month is not an issue.
Yes, the tax was not very progressive, or tied to the amount you drove your car, but, the fact is, it was not an onerous tax and it brought badly needed revenue into the city.
The debate at council over whether to repeal it or not centred not around the tax itself, but, the effect that repealing it would have on the upcoming budget and whether it would mean cuts elsewhere. Councillor Joe Mihevc tweeted at the time "Can we separate the tax question from the service implication question?" Ford deflected all of these questions in the debate over the VRT by saying that they weren't talking about the budget, they were talking about the Vehicle Registration Tax. When an amendment to push the vote on the VRT under the umbrella of the budget process, which would have allowed for council to vote on it with all the information in front of it, came forward it was struck down. As were two attempts to add wording that the repeal of the VRT would not be accompanied by future service cuts. These last two were mostly "tongue in cheek," because they would have effectively tie council's hands. The point here though, is Rob Ford's eagerness to cancel the VRT made it harder for responsible council members to vote on it without having all the information.
Yes, the VRT was repealed awhile ago, but, it is relevant here because, us "respected taxpayers" are being asked to make sacrifices in the budget now. What those sacrifices might be, we do not know yet, they may be the closing of a library, the shutting down of 48 late-night "underused" bus routes, or at one point, the $60 million savings for car drivers was going to be subsidized by a ttc fare hike. But, that was quickly and literally scratched out.
For anyone paying attention to Rob Ford's election promises this back of the napkin process seems about right. He promised 100 more cops, seemingly because 100 seemed like a nice round number. That promise seems to have evaporated. He promised no service cuts, that promise seems to have been kept this year on the back of Miller's out of control spending (read surplus gift.) We will see those service cuts next year. He promised to make the TTC an essential service, despite just 13 days having been lost to TTC strikes in the last 30 years and the fact that it will now cost the city more in payroll.
Now, despite having pledged to make the city more transparent, he has pushed the budget up from the end of March to the end of January with a new budget committee. Combine lack of time with a huge structural deficit and it makes for disorganized governing. Mike Del Grande has recently bemoaned the fact that the Vehicle Registration Tax wouldn't have solved Toronto's deficit problem. True, but, I'm pretty sure everyone would love to have an extra $60 million lying around right now.
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