Mayor Ford's Budget Problems

By Jeff Cover

1 Mayor Ford is going off the rails on a gravy train.

The city of Toronto is currently staring down a $774 M budget shortfall. 2 (Others have said that the shortfall is actually only $443 M (3), but a Globe and Mail article from yesterday still quotes the larger number.) Controversial accounting firm KPMG has audited the city's books and given reccommendations on how to pull money from the budget.

Here are ten options provided by the Globe and Mail.

4

Who will be most affected by these proposed cuts? The poor.

Night Buses and Wheel Trans - Who uses public transportation more? The rich or the poor?

Libraries and City Gardens - What class of people have their own private libraries and gardens? The rish or the poor?

AIDS prevention and Police - What neighbourhoods would suffer the most from these funding cuts? Rich neighbourhoods or poor neighbourhoods?

Daycare and Long-term Care - What kind of person needs care services provided by the city? A rich person or a poor person?

Zoos and Parks - What kind of parents need (not want) an inexpensive way to keep the kids busy for the day? Rich parents or poor parents?

Christmas Bureau - What kind of children receive donated presents during the holidays? Rich children or poor children?

Make no mistake. Every single one of these cuts is an attack on the poor.

When Mayor Ford entered office on December 1st, 2010, Mayor Miller had left him a $286 M budget surplus. A short eight months later and that $286 M budget surplus is now (allegedly) a $774 M budget shortfall. Where did the money go? Tax freezes, tax cuts, refusal to raise funds, and mailing out $60 cheques to motorists.

I have a huge problem with mailing millions of dollars worth of cheques to motorists, only to cut public transportation in a city with the worst commute in North America. In London, England, they charge people for the right to drive in the city and encourage use of public transportation. In Toronto, we jut ignore the problem and bitch about fees.

On the campaign trail, Rob Ford kept saying that he would "Stop the Gravy Train." It's the kind of sentiment that can capture a big audience with its simplicity. Government spends too much of OUR money on wasteful practices. The whole City Hall is filled with greedy politicians with their hands in the pockets of the working man (or woman). They just want to take your hard-earned money to pay for services that don't benefit you.

Easy, right? Yeah.

Too bad it is completely misleading, extremely cynical, and just plain wrong.

Ford hasn't been able to find the mountains of "gravy" that he promised. He hasn't been able to find the millions of dollars in wasted money he implied was there when he started attacking taxes and fees. And instead of finding this money before he started tax cuts, tax freezes and the cheque fiasco, he now has to find 3/4 of a billion dollars.

It appears as if every measure that Mayor Ford has taken has been unfunded. I mean, how else could he (allegedly) lose a billion dollars? If even one of his pieces of legislation were funded, wouldn't the shortfall be a hell of a lot less?

Is Rob Ford just incompetent? He was the candidate claiming fiscal responsibility and attacking the "reckless spending" of Mayor Miller. Less than a year later, that same man has lost a billion dollars.

Or is Rob Ford a genius? He is, after all, a conservative. Conservatives don't believe in charity. They don't believe in things like social standing, or the inherent advantages of being born to rich parents. Conservatives think that every person is responsible for their own well-being, and being forced to give up one's money in order to pay for shared projects that mainly favour the poor is unjust. Mayor Ford doesn't believe he has a duty to serve the poor, only to serve himself. It's what conservatives call "Randianism" and what humans call "egomania."

Rob Ford entered office with the promise that he would "Stop the Gravy Train." As soon as he entered office, he began a series of unfunded projects, costing the city an average of $120 M per month. Now there is a huge budget shortfall that must be paid for with austerity measures. City Hall members must choose between cutting programs for the poor or defaulting on loans. The third option, raising taxes, had been taken off the table because it conflicts with conservative beliefs.

So austerity measures it is then. Brace yourselves, poor people.

A lot of countries are going through austerity measures right now, such as Greece and the UK. There, it's the result of the global economic crash. Toronto, on the other hand, survived the crash. The city even had more than a quarter billion in surplus last year.

Toronto is now staring down an unprecedented level of austerity measures due to the reckless and irresponsible spending of a food-analogy-obsessed Mayor.

Stop the Bullshit Train.


That is all. Thanks for reading.


REFERENCES:
(1) Anthony Smereck, "Gravy," FlashBangImageryComics, deviousdrawings.ca.
(2) "Police, TTC, libraries could face cuts," The Globe and Mail, 22 July 2011, theglobeandmail.com.
(3) Paul Maloney, "City budget gap exaggerated, critics say," The Toronto Star, 17 July 2011, thestar.ca.
(4) "10 options for Ford to boil down the budget," Infographic, The Globe and Mail, 21 July 2011l, theglobeandmail.com.