City of Toronto Budget Wars: Temporary Fix to Permanent Problems

Some people in the City of Toronto are (rightfully) ecstatic today as several programs and facilities that were on the chopping block, were saved at the last minute by a move by rookie city counsellor Josh Colle that saw over $15 Million re-inserted into the 2012 budget. All the people in attendance (the ones who actually give a damn about specific things within the city limits) cheered when the motion passed and the major portions of Mayor Ford's budget were voted down by a narrow 23-21 vote.

What these people gained this year was just another year reprieve for programs such as underused public pools, outdoor skating rinks and mechanical leaf collection in Scarborough and Etobicoke (Really? With people fighting over money for daycare, you allocate money for mechanical leaf collection?). The shortfall in the budget for these programs is now being covered by money that could have been saved for use next year in the budget shortfall that will once again be in place then. Without such things as user fees (and really, who can't afford paying like $20 a month to use a city run pool during the summer?) these programs will once again be the subject of great debate one year from now because they just don't generate the revenue that can continue to keep them in the black as opposed to being in the red.

The problem we are seeing with Toronto City Council is the result of the low voter turnout in the municipal elections which brought Rob Ford into power in the first place. The people who cared and took issue with the way that former Mayor David Miller ran things, were the ones who voted in Mayor Ford because they were tired of Miller and his double digit increases to his own and city counselor salaries while city infrastructure deteriorated around him.

These same people wanted a hawk to come in as teh next mayor and do exactly what Rob Ford promise he would as he used the slogan, "Stop the Gravytrain" to grab their attention, claiming he would finally stop the flow of taxpayer money from city coffers to hand picked supporters of the former Mayor and city counselors who would commonly use their office budget as their own blank cheque to use as they wished.

These same people who have been whining and complaining about just about every suggestion of Mr. Ford has made with regards to budget cuts failed to generate enough support for their own candidates when it counted in order to put their own choice for mayor in office. Even I disagree with some of Mayor Ford's suggestions for his budget but considering the fact that he is the only one coming up with ideas and every single one has seen protests or complaints from one segment of the population or another seems to me to be completely unfair. Essentially, the people of Toronto are acting like children.

Mayor: "Would you like a red crayon?"

City: "No!"

Mayor: "How about a blue one?"

City: "NO!"

Mayor: "Yellow?"

City: "NO, NO, NO!!!!"

I know I am being a bit over the top there but still, you get the point. Instead of even having his newly elected city counselors come up with ideas, they pussied out and instead when asked to come up with suggestions, they opted to have continuous town hall meetings to get the public to give them ideas in order to save their own political asses, without really getting any ideas of what to do at all. All the town hall meetings did was generate a ton of bad press for the Mayor as he was characterized as the one who wanted all these cuts and the counselors, who didn't have the balls to make any suggestions, came off looking like the beacons of democracy for bailing on the job they were voted in to do; make budgetary decisions.

I'm not saying Mayor Ford isn't an idiot for not having just rallied the troops and done exactly what he wanted to do. You are the mayor. You were voted in to enact change, then go out and do it (this rings true for you too Mr. President, yes you Mr. Obama). If you are voted in with a specific mandate, then by god you do it, come hell or high water. If you don't then you are showing everyone who voted for you that you were all talk, and no action, regardless of your reasons why (although I will give Mr. Obama a break on this one as he was pretty much stymied at every turn by a racist Republican Senate that simply didn't want to do anything that the President would even think of suggesting). The fact he allowed such public groundswell of support to build against him does not bode well for any future re-election campaign.

What the people in the city of Toronto need to understand is that when the city budget is in such rough shape (mostly because of the way that the former Mayor left the city in such a huge fiscal hole after 7 years of budgetary ineptitude on his part), tough calls will have to be made with regards to specific programs. A one year fix (which is all this budget that was passed last night will be: a temporary fix), does nothing but delay a final decision by one year. You've done yourself no favours here.

Celebrate all you want but the issue will return until you realize that by continuing to live above your means, you are only dooming future generations to years and years of having less and less because thy will still be paying off the debts we are creating today.

Great job....