by Mortimer Crane
It is time to admit that our city was washed over by a fetid tidal wave of Ford frenzy that turned even the best of us into babbling bobble-heads chanting “down with the gravy train!” Just over a year ago, Rob Ford came roaring into the Mayor’s office claiming that Toronto did not have a revenue problem, and pledging to meet Toronto’s shortfall by eliminating the “gravy” without service cuts or tax increases.
Fast forward just a year and Mayor Ford’s 2012 budget does the exact opposite – including both a 2.5% property tax increase and sweeping service cuts with the reduction in public library hours, a 30 percent reduction to street cleaning and snow clearing, closures of 3 shelters, 5 wading pools, and much more.
Yet Mayor Ford proclaimed: “For the first time ever, folks, we will spend less next year than we did this year.” He left out – “and folks, y’all be paying higher taxes and getting less services than ever before.”
International experts state that Toronto is on the brink of an economic crisis because we lack sufficient transit infrastructure to compete with other world class cities. But instead of addressing our transit dilemma Mayor Ford’s 2012 Capital budget does the exact opposite and calls for a 1.1 billion cut from planned TTC infrastructure.
So who’s the fool in all this?
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