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+--- Thread: Time to pay for the city we want: Editorial (/thread-32053.html)
Time to pay for the city we want: Editorial - chairman - 08-08-2016
thestar.com
The newly unveiled proposal to build a sprawling park in Toronto’s condo-cramped downtown should have been a high point of John Tory’s mayoralty. The idea of 21 acres of green space over the rail corridor between Bathurst St. and Blue Jays Way promises a much-needed respite from the concrete and glass that dominates our increasingly dense downtown.
Yet it was hard to take the suggestion seriously. On the same day the proposal was made, TTC chief Andy Byford issued a letter explaining that the mayor’s call for a 2.6-per-cent budget cut across all departments would make it impossible for the city to maintain even the current level of transit service, never mind the $215 million planned for urgent improvements to the system. How, then, are we expected to afford a park that could cost upward of $700 million?
The two stories juxtaposed provide yet another stark illustration that the city’s ambitions are totally inconsistent with its fiscal policy.
Toronto has a pressing revenue problem. We cannot afford to continue to drain money from reserves meant to maintain services through hard times or rely on a red-hot real estate market that won’t last forever. Nor can we find savings through efficiencies that would even begin to address the yawning gap. If we are going to fund the key infrastructure projects necessary to create a livable, equitable and economically viable city, new means of generating revenue are urgently needed.
As the city manager has said time and again, current property and land transfer taxes alone cannot pay for desperately needed transit expansion, repairing Toronto's decrepit public housing, realigning the Gardiner Expressway, building green space downtown, and other vital initiatives. A recent staff report pegged the total value of Toronto's unfunded capital work as high as $29 billion.
Tory says he understands the need and will bring in new “revenue tools†this fall. Many such tools are available to the city and have been widely studied, including a tax on alcohol and tobacco, a parking levy, entertainment tax or development charges, among others. Whatever his choices, the mayor must stick to his commitment and deliver bold measures in the lead-up to next year’s budget.
The alternative is not merely stagnation, but decline. In order to make the cuts Tory has requested, for instance, Byford says the TTC would have to implement “unpalatable†measures such as fare discounts, cutting service, and delaying the opening of the Spadina subway extension. Still, the mayor warned Byford last week that if the TTC can’t find the cost savings he is demanding he will send in a task force to do so.
In a meeting with the Star’s editorial board last month, Mayor Tory spoke about the necessity of such cuts. He said that before the city asks Torontonians to pay more, it must show residents that it has done everything in its power to trim the fat (or, in the parlance of another mayor, stop the gravy train). But that approach too often has the opposite of its intended effect: Cuts damage services. Poor services diminish public confidence in government. The lack of trust makes new taxes a tougher sell.
The need for new infrastructure investments could hardly be clearer to the many Torontonians who spend hours every week stuck in traffic or overheated subways or an increasingly claustrophobic downtown. Promised funds from federal and provincial governments will not be enough. Nor will current revenue tools. City bureaucrats have been perfectly clear on this. If we want a livable city, no amount of nickel-and-diming will do. Sooner or later, we simply have to dig a little deeper and pay for it.
Re: Time to pay for the city we want: Editorial - mapoui - 08-08-2016
I hate all this stupid hypocrite, lying, corrupt talk.
the problem remains debt. yes debt, debt and more debt. that is the problem..debt the people who have have forced all levels of government to spend money by debt..who have taken over the Canadian dollar and forced governments to borrow that money at interest anytime they need money.
over time every level of government accrues so much debt that they cannot afford to spend any money to keep things going, less they add more debt that stiffles the city, province, nation.
yet the Canadian dollar belongs to the people and as the arbiter of the CanadIAn dollar the governments do not need to borrow it all.
THE GOVERNMENT DOES NOT NEED OR HAVE TO BORROW ITS OWN MONEY. IT CAN PRINT MONEY FREELY TO BUILD UP ITS OWN INFRASTRUCTURE..LIKE THIS SORELY NEEDED NEW PARK THEY WANT TO BUILD.
BUT THE DEBT IS SO LARGE DEH NOW HAVE A DEFICIT BETWEEN THE MONEY THEY COLLECT IN TAXES AND THE CITY'S EXPENSES. AND THE BIGGEST PART OF THAT DEFICIT/DEBT IS THE INTEREST CHARGES THEY MUST PAY EVERY YEAR ON THE MOST UNNECESSARY AND CORRUPT OF DEBTS, ON THE BIGGEST SKAM IN LIFE AT THE MOMENT...GOVERNMENT DEBT
Re: Time to pay for the city we want: Editorial - chairman - 08-08-2016
so you always buy cash?
Re: Time to pay for the city we want: Editorial - mapoui - 08-08-2016
[quote author=The Chairman link=topic=105694.msg708411#msg708411 date=1470680626]
so you always buy cash?
[/quote]
wat does that have to do with what I said ::confused::
Re: Time to pay for the city we want: Editorial - chairman - 08-08-2016
cities have to borrow
Re: Time to pay for the city we want: Editorial - ketchim - 08-08-2016
[quote author=The Chairman link=topic=105694.msg708404#msg708404 date=1470678475]
yet another stark illustration that
the city’s ambitions are totally inconsistent with its fiscal policy.
[/quote]
LoL ! so what else is new ? :-[
Re: Time to pay for the city we want: Editorial - chairman - 08-08-2016
How about a park a top the gardiner
Re: Time to pay for the city we want: Editorial - mapoui - 08-08-2016
[quote author=The Chairman link=topic=105694.msg708418#msg708418 date=1470682337]
cities have to borrow
[/quote]
no they don't..if things were normal.
they would have to agree to plans in the city and once agreed, through the province and the federal government request the money to be printed for the project/infrastructure.
that's it..nothing more. no debt no interest charges NOTHING you hear!
the project completed they would have to submit an audited accounting to the the province and the federal government...
statement: expenditure..asset realized- the park!
how they use the park would be important. it has to be maintained so they could charge for use of the park by the people for that purpose
or absorb the new parks maintenance into general park expenditure paid for from city revenue which without debt should be able to cover such cost expansion easily
Re: Time to pay for the city we want: Editorial - mapoui - 08-08-2016
THAT IS HOW CITY, PROVINCE AND NATION ARE SUPPOSED TO BE FUNDED.
THAT IS THE WAY IT USED TO BE IN CANADA UP TO 1974 WHEN PIERRE ELLIOT TRUDEAU GAVE THE CANADIAN DOLLAR TO THE JEWISH BANKERS.GAVE AWAY THE NATIONS OWN MONEY TO LEND BACK TO THE CANADIAN GOVERNMENT/PEOPLE AT INTEREST
that is why there is a debt crisis and all the financial trouble..because with that power the bankers have cleaned out Canada..and most nations around the world. that is the grand scam at the heart of global finance...HOW THE BANKERS HAVE MANAGED TO TAKE OVER THE FINANCES OF MOST NATIONS AND FORCED THEM TO BORROW THEIR OWN MONEY..HOW IN THAT WAY THE BANKES HAVE MANGED OVER A 100+ YEARS NOW, TO MAKE ZILLIONS OF DOLLARS FROM LITERALLY THING AIR, FOR NOTHING..THE ABSOLUTE FREE LUNCH
Re: Time to pay for the city we want: Editorial - mapoui - 08-08-2016
IF YOU DON'T KNOW THIS BY NOW CHAIRMAN YOU BLINE!!
EVERYBODY NOW KNOW THIS. THE PEOPLE EYES HAVE BEEN OPENED. WAT HAPPEN TO YOUR EYES ::confused:: ::confused:: ::confused::