John Tory extends Rob Ford’s legacy of austerity
TheStar.com – Opinion/Commentary – Former mayor Rob Ford may be gone, but his vision of public service on the cheap is still here.
May 26, 2016. By DESMOND COLE
Mayor John Tory says we don’t need more people like him in Toronto — elected officials, that is. In response to a staff recommendation for three new councillors to serve our growing city, Tory has repeated that we don’t need any more “politicians.” I rarely hear the mayor referring to himself and his colleagues as “politicians,” and repeating the word so frequently as he has on the issue of new city wards and councillors. Tory says “politician” like it’s a bad thing because, in his small-government mindset, it is.
Former mayor Rob Ford may be gone, but his vision of public service on the cheap is still here. Where Ford promised to respect “taxpayers,” Tory similarly vows to protect “homeowners,” whom he recently claimed are “stretched to the limit,” and cannot afford to pay more in property taxes. This commitment to keep life more enjoyable for those with the most money and resources is the new normal in local politics — we are officially Toronto the Greedy.
Since he got into office, Tory has been stomping his feet whenever staff tell him the city is in desperate need of new revenues, and that property taxes are too low to fund basic government obligations. “Ninety-seven per cent of the voters in 2014 voted for a candidate who supported a property tax increase no greater than the rate of inflation,” Tory bragged this week. But the promise to keep taxes below inflation is just code for limiting tax increases on rich and middle class residents.
Inflation means a dollar doesn’t go as far as it used to because of price increases. We should definitely factor this phenomenon into property tax rates. The problem with making inflation the only factor in funding is that we already underfund many of our core services like transit and housing. Indexing the future funding of these services to inflation guarantees the permanent starvation of public infrastructure. And what for? So that the average homeowner, who already has the resources to own property, can save 50 or 100 bucks a year.
Of course Mayor Tory doesn’t want more elected officials in Toronto! Who cares if the city’s population is growing, the boundaries haven’t changed in 15 years, and the largest existing ward has more than double the residents of the smallest one? In Tory’s world, representation is for privileged residents first, and the privileged fear it would be too expensive to give everyone more equitable access to government.
Tory, like Ford before him, has demanded that underfunded programs and services find “efficiencies.” Many city departments say there’s nothing more to cut. “This idea that we can’t find efficiencies is patently false and the wrong attitude to have,” deputy mayor Denzil Minnan-Wong said this week, in response to yet another staff warning that the city needs more tax revenue. He added that a large property tax increase “is going to have a real effect on families.”
Yes, taxing rich families would help poorer families have a better life in Toronto. But you can’t say that in Toronto the Greedy, even as child poverty and income inequality entrench themselves in our midst. You have to pretend that “families” means everyone, and that even poor and working class families will benefit from low taxes the way rich families do. Even when government does find savings, politicians like Tory and Ford give most of the money back to its apparent rightful owners, the rich folks.
According to city manager Peter Wallace, the city has saved money in recent years because the province took over responsibility for welfare services. At executive committee this week, when councillor David Shiner asked Wallace what council had done with the money it had saved on welfare, Wallace replied, “you put it into lower property taxes.” The Torontonians with the most property have benefitted most from this policy. But in the greedy world of retail politics, you can always save the “taxpayers” a little more.
In 2010, as he campaigned to become Toronto’s 64th mayor, Ford said he didn’t think Toronto could handle any more immigrants. “I think it is more important to take care of people now before we start bringing in more people,” said Ford. He did a great job taking care of people who already have money, and Tory is extending the Ford legacy, at the direct expense of Toronto’s poor and working classes.
< https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2016/05/26/john-tory-extends-rob-fords-legacy-of-austerity-cole.html >
Tags: budget, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, standard of living, tax
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