TheStar.com | GTA | Miller flip-flops on cuts

According to The Star, Mayor David Miller will table a motion to cancel the community centre cuts as he’s feeling the sting of the public backlash, thereby out-maneuvering his opponents who were going to table a motion to reverse them at the next meeting.

But I wonder. Why does he need Council approval to overturn the cuts, but did not need approval to make them in the first place? According to a Miller aide, “[City Manager Shirley] Hoy was legally allowed to trim budgets without council approval.” Given the huge negative effect on people, these cuts were more than trims, and if the City Manager can cut whenever, then what’s the point of Council having budget debates? Why not just hand the whole kit and caboodle over to her and say here, you deal with it? I’m exaggerating I know, but I’m trying to make a point: that we elect Council to make budget decisions, and only Council ought to have the right to make those decisions, not a bureaucrat most of us know little about.

I wonder how Miller will word his motion, and if he’ll sneak in those tax hikes he wants? He has after all been holding people hostage using those cuts as bait. On the one hand, it looks like people have won; on the other, he can carry out his plan of reversing the cuts as long as he gets his tax hikes before the Council-agreed-upon date. Badabing, badaboom.

Related posts:

1. Miller is Listening, Sort of
2. Why the Sudden Spate of Cost Cutting at City Hall?
3. Miller minus NDP
4. Interesting Graphic on Toronto’s Budget
5. Budget Increase