TheStar.com - Ontario - McGuinty eases city’s tax burden

The headline in the Toronto Star says Premier Dalton McGuinty is easing Toronto’s tax burden. Love the distortion there. Read the fine print and do some math. I know, media types fall asleep at the mere mention of math.

Toronto needs over half a billion dollars next year to balance its budget. McGuinty will give Toronto a whopping $38 million, that’s 6.7 percent of what’s needed. 6.7 percent. Yup, that will really ease Toronto’s fiscal shortfall.

“This is an excellent first step in correcting the structural imbalance in the way municipalities are funded and pay for services,” Mayor David Miller wrote (or his press person did).

First step? This is a teeny tiny baby toe touch, the kind where kids sing “put your big toe in, put your big toe out.” Read the fine print. McGuinty has promised merely to take over disability support costs — which are at piss-poor levels and can barely sustain a person so obviously don’t amount to much — and drug benefits for those on welfare, a total of $935 million over the next four years, by 2011 I guess. (The NDP had calculated this total as $800 million when devising their own campaign promises. I wonder who’s right?) Toronto will receive $217 million over those 4 years: $38 million the first year and $59.67 million each year for the next three. This promise is mere flummery. It will do nothing to reverse what Mike Harris did and hardly relieve Toronto’s burden. If this is the best McGuinty can come up with under pressure of an election, then don’t hold your breath for more after an election. It won’t come for 4 years until he’s under the gun of the next election.

In contrast, Howard Hampton gets how municipalities, particularly Toronto is being crushed under the burden of paying for provincial services, and has promised to reverse Harris’ disastrous downloading. Under his leadership, as of January 1, 2008, the province will resume paying for the security services at the courts, that’s $200 million. Toronto pays $40 million per year for those costs right now. With that one promise, Toronto would immediately benefit more under the NDP than under McGuinty’s plan. Still, it’s a drop in the bucket. But wait, there’s more.

Hampton will freeze transit fares for 2 years. We already know fares in Toronto are disproportionately too high in comparison to other Canadian and American cities, and this promise will stop the annual fare fear City Council visits upon us, for 2 years anyway. That alone is worth voting for Hampton. But wait, there’s more.

As of January 1, 2008, the province under the NDP will immediately resume its traditional responsibility of paying for 50 percent of the transit operating costs, including the TTC. Province wide that’s a $220 million benefit. For us TTC users, it will mean City Council will have another reason not to scare us with talk of fare hikes and Sheppard subway shutdowns.

The NDP will also upload the disability support and drug benefit programs fully by 2011. They made this promise on August 14th, that’s 7 days ago. I guess we now know where McGuinty came up with his promise: picked the cheapest and almost-longest-to-take-effect of Hampton’s and claim it as his own. Mind you, he claims he’s merely announcing government policy as it was approved by cabinet. When, I wonder did cabinet approve it? And if before this campaign started, why announce it only now?

Once a proposed Hampton government finishes uploading Harris’ downloading, the total benefit to municipalities will be $3.6 billion. Makes McGuinty’s lauded first step look puny, eh? And where the heck is John Tory? Waiting for a report that will be released after the election. And while he waits, he’s swiftly losing my vote.

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2. Toronto Political Nitpicks
3. Ontario’s Surplus, Our Shortfall
4. A Holiday and Ice Time
5. Tory Rant