City of Toronto today announces a 140 mil surplus, (yet next year the sky is falling)

[james t kirk]

Toronto expects $140M surplus for 2011

CBC News

Posted: Oct 11, 2011 3:00 PM ET


Related Links
Rob Ford denies his governance hurt Ontario PCsToronto cuts total about $26MFord vows to clean up budget 'mess'Land transfer tax must stay for now: budget chiefAccessibility Links

Beginning of Story Content

The City of Toronto is expected to have a $140 million surplus this year, thanks in large part to greater than expected revenues from the land transfer tax that Mayor Rob Ford has said he wants to dispense with.

The $139.3 million surplus was revealed Tuesday in a report prepared by city staff as an update on the city's financial situation. It will go before council's budget committee next week.
The main contributing factors to the surplus include:
An intake of $79.5 million more than expected from the municipal land transfer tax.
$22.5 million more than expected from supplementary taxes.
$15 million in interest and investment earnings.
Internal services that came $5.4 million under budget.

The land transfer tax has been a favourite target of Ford, who promised to get rid of it during his election campaign.

The land transfer tax will likely remain for the time being, but Ford has insisted its days are numbered.

In a July interview with radio station AM 640, Ford said he hopes to be able to phase out the tax in increments by 2014, despite also trying to bridge next year's budget gap that is estimated at between $500 million and $774 million.

The land transfer tax brings in about $300 million to the city's coffers, staff believe. The total Toronto budget stands at about $9.4 billion.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2011/10/11/toronto-surplus-land-transfer-tax548.html

 

[james t kirk]

Mayor McCheese has been lying to us.

I don't understand how we've run surpluses the last 2 years, yet next year we are supposedly facing a 700 million dollar shortfall.

That amounts to about a billion dollar U turn in tax revenues for the City of Toronto.

I just don't see it.

Several people have been questioning McCheese's math along the way. It seems obvious to me that fuck head is just one of those simplistic kids who lies to the school yard to get his way. The guy should be impeached. (If that is even possible.)

 

[omegaphallic]

Ford Nations pretty much dead. A wedge is appearing between the brothers, Ford's clout with council is dissovling as is the publics support. I believe he even had to make a deal with the left wing part of council on the waterfront, because he couldn't get enough of his allies to support him. Ford has been effectively neutered.

First Hudak loses. Fords on his way to becoming a ridiculed figure head. Harper's next. Already the Supreme Court dealt his agenda a blow that has set up the Harper Agenda for many more. Add to that pressure is growing on Harper to provide stimulus and his plans are not going as he planned.

 

[shack]

Indisputable bottom line.

A)Ford is mayor.
B)There is a surplus.

 

[omegaphallic]

Indisputable bottom line.

A)Ford is mayor.
B)There is a surplus.

Both those are facts, but not the bottom line. Basicly he got the surplus by surrendering on his single biggest promise and all the damage to date he inflict on Ford Nation and the conservatives have been for nothing. He basically bent over for the left side of council again and spread his ass wide. His far right supporter will respect him less and it will not fix the support he lost from pissing people off. He's a political cockold and Miller must be laughing his ass off.

 

[Brill]

Creating a crisis to bring an atmosphere of fear so wholesale cuts to services are welcomed won't be accepted by most people any longer.
"Ford Nation" doesn't exist.

 

[james t kirk]

Exactly correct.

He has been creating a crisis that does not exist. 140 million surplus for the year 2011. Logic would dictate that all things being equal, next year should be the same or close. I cannot fathom how you can have a surplus last year of 120 mil, a surplus this year of 140 mil and next year - you're going to have a deficit of 700 million.

Not possible.

I'm all for holding the line on spending at current levels. No problem.

But I don't see the need to lay of a 1,000 cops, or sell the zoos, or cut TTC services, or close libraries. I just don't see it.

 

[basketcase]

Indisputable bottom line.

A)Ford is mayor.
B)There is a surplus.

Ford's cuts = 5.4 million
Taxes Ford wants to get rid of = 79+ million

 

[Possum Trot]

Mayor McCheese has been lying to us.

I don't understand how we've run surpluses the last 2 years, yet next year we are supposedly facing a 700 million dollar shortfall.

That amounts to about a billion dollar U turn in tax revenues for the City of Toronto.

I just don't see it.

Several people have been questioning McCheese's math along the way. It seems obvious to me that fuck head is just one of those simplistic kids who lies to the school yard to get his way. The guy should be impeached. (If that is even possible.)

I think you might need to consider built-in cost increases resulting from wage increases built into existing union contracts. Wages are the majority of the budget and a majority of those are covered by contracts in place.
If the numbers are so fucked up why haven't the lefties on council been more forceful in bring that message across?

 

[blackrock13]

Exactly correct.

He has been creating a crisis that does not exist. 140 million surplus for the year 2011. Logic would dictate that all things being equal, next year should be the same or close. I cannot fathom how you can have a surplus last year of 120 mil, a surplus this year of 140 mil and next year - you're going to have a deficit of 700 million.

Not possible.

I'm all for holding the line on spending at current levels. No problem.

But I don't see the need to lay of a 1,000 cops, or sell the zoos, or cut TTC services, or close libraries. I just don't see it.

The Cretien Liberals in Ottawa use to do that all the time. Tell us there was no money sand then find some. You bitched when there was going to be a shortfall in TO under Ford and now your bitching when they have a surplus. He's done all this in under a year? You must be a scream around that time of the month. Maybe he finally got a chance to look at all the books that His Whiteness kept.

 

[james t kirk]

I think you might need to consider built-in cost increases resulting from wage increases built into existing union contracts. Wages are the majority of the budget and a majority of those are covered by contracts in place.
If the numbers are so fucked up why haven't the lefties on council been more forceful in bring that message across?

A billion dollars in wage increases?

Not possible.

 

[james t kirk]

The Cretien Liberals in Ottawa use to do that all the time. Tell us there was no money sand then find some. You bitched when there was going to be a shortfall in TO under Ford and now your bitching when they have a surplus. He's done all this in under a year? You must be a scream around that time of the month. Maybe he finally got a chance to look at all the books that His Whiteness kept.

Big Difference.

Chretien and Martin were declaring that there were surpluses all along, but the surplus would come in higher than expected and they would put it toward the debt. (Oh the good old days in Ottawa.)

Now Ford is running a surplus, but telling us that we are facing a 700 million dollar shortfall in order to advance his nutty agenda.

Your comparison is therfore not valid.

 

[blackrock13]

Big Difference.

Chretien and Martin were declaring that there were surpluses all along, but the surplus would come in higher than expected and they would put it toward the debt. (Oh the good old days in Ottawa.)

Now Ford is running a surplus, but telling us that we are facing a 700 million dollar shortfall in order to advance his nutty agenda.

Your comparison is therfore not valid.

Only in the approach. Both end up with more money than they started out with.

We can't do that because we only have this much to spend.

OR

We can't do that because we haven't any extra to spend

Then, hey people we have more than we thought , so let's look at plan B.

 

[Mervyn]

Sadly , reminds me of Miller when he found 100 million surplus...

 

[omegaphallic]

Sadly , reminds me of Miller when he found 100 million surplus...

Why when I budget my money do I never find a 100 million dollar surplus?

Humour aside I'm not upset at all. Rob Ford fucked the right raw and hard and it was all unnessarry as the left has been saying all along, for example Adam Giabronie, that as long as he didn't drop that transfer tax that things would be fine budget wise.

Funny things is, is Rob Ford created unneed panic that destroyed his career and may help fuck Harper's chances for another Majority by costing him much of the TO. It was all based on his own stupidity in making a promise he couldn't keep.

There is a big difference in creating a huge panic about slashing services that creates a backlash against you and under estimating how big a surplus you are getting when you promised a surplus. One is unwarranted bad news when there was no problem, the other better good news then the good news you were planning. The first leads to defeat, the latter to reelection until you do something else to piss people off.

Not that I'm a fan of how the liberal conducted themselves in the 90's with almost every promise broken, slashing healthcare and other transferes to the proviences, so really it was proviences and the poor that balanced Ottawa's books not the liberals. Its also why when the liberals attack the cons on health care the cons just laugh at them, because the cons haven't touched the transferes except to raise them. It was the smartest thing Harper did.

To top it off the libs blew tons of money on bullshit tax cuts for the rest while saying fuck you to air head progressives that supported them, break tons of promises. This is the why I came to hate the liberals more then the cons.

 

[ogibowt]

The Cretien Liberals in Ottawa use to do that all the time. Tell us there was no money sand then find some. You bitched when there was going to be a shortfall in TO under Ford and now your bitching when they have a surplus. He's done all this in under a year? You must be a scream around that time of the month. Maybe he finally got a chance to look at all the books that His Whiteness kept.

or Ford is just a fucking liar...works for me...

 

[blackrock13]

or Ford is just a fucking liar...works for me...

I'm guessing you didn't vote for him.

 

[ogibowt]

QUOTE=blackrock13;3734626]I'm guessing you didn't vote for him.[/QUOTE]


ya think?..lol..

 

[oldjones]

I think you might need to consider built-in cost increases resulting from wage increases built into existing union contracts. Wages are the majority of the budget and a majority of those are covered by contracts in place.
If the numbers are so fucked up why haven't the lefties on council been more forceful in bring that message across?

One of those contracts being the police, which Ford signed with barely a whimper of cost-cutter resistance, and now expects the Board and the Chief to pay for out of the small part of the TPS budget which isn't uniformed salaries. Like maybe responding to calls, cars, gas, radios, firing range time…

 

[james t kirk]

Ford's major fuck up has been threatening to slash just about every city service.

He should have approached it from the other side and demanded wage concessions from the Unions - the public would have got behind him on that.

But telling everyone that you're going to close half the libraries out there, get rid of daycare for the poor, defund sexual disease clinics, sell off the zoos, selll of theatres, lay off cops and firefighters, etc. etc. - people get pissed off. If he said, "I want everyone to take a 10% pay cut so that we can preserve services" he would have been golden. (Now there is probably no way in hell he would get that - but we'll return to that in a minute). He could have played it smart, take to the media and talk about how he wants to preserve services, preserve the city, but that costs are simply too high. In the last city of Toronto strike, the public was behind David Miller in fighting the union requests for more and more money. We were willing to endure the garbage in the streets, public support for taking on the unions never wavered. Ford somehow missed this, or was too stupid to figure it out. Instead, Ford went firing off his 16" guns about cutting services - lots of them. I truly believe that Ford honestly thinks that the City of Toronto delivers too many services that a city should not be responsible for. That said, I sure don't know which ones those are.

The problem at the end of the day is not too many services, but too many city workers delivering them.

So, all he had to do was demand wage concessions and say, "in order to preserve services in the city, we need a 10% wage concession" Of course the Unions would howl and scream - but that would only serve to show the public that they do not give a shit about the public (and they don't). Ford would have had the public's support. When the unions refused to grant a wage concession, Ford should have then switched to "ok, you won't take a reasonable pay cut - now we are going to have to lay some of you off" Again, playing it smart, he could have said, "not my fault, I offered full employment in return for a reasonable wage cut, they wouldn't go for it"

Again, the public would have backed him.

But no, Mayor McCheese rides in there slashing and burning.

Totally wrong way to approach it.