The Citizens Have Won - Sort Of...

And now the hand wringing and terror tactics begin.

Monday's vote to increase taxes in the form of an extra land transfer tax and vehicle tax for the citizens of the City of Toronto failed, sort of. It was actually deferred to October by one vote. The deciding vote by Brian Ashton, who is part of Mayor Millers inner circle was a surprise.

Of course nothing has really been gained, in the end the tax will go through maybe just in a different form. There is now talk of making the seller pay it instead of the buyer. That's kind of like a tax on capital gain. My problem with this is there is no capital gain tax on principal residences in Canada. We also don't get to write off our mortgage payments against income. So if you live in Toronto you could be the only one paying this tax, fair right?

A recent survey in the most liberal of newspapers, The Toronto Star showed that a full 75 percent were against these taxes. Is this the end of Mayor Miller's political career or will we all forget in the 3 or so years? I know I wont.

So, the fear mongering has started with the Transit boss today threatening to shut down an entire subway line, never mind that this particular subway has a light ridership and should probably have never been built. Another threat is a double digit property tax increase and layoffs at city hall. Other layoff's we have been threatened with are police and firefighters and the always popular "we will have to close swimming pools".

Belt tightening is the order of the day for the good Mayor and Councillors but when asked if he would retroactively cancel the over 8 percent salary increase that they recently voted themselves, or cut back on their office budget the answer was a decisive NO. I have absolutely no problem paying my fair share of property tax when it is used wisely. I do vehemently object to elected officials using my money to give themselves freebies such as golf passes, transit passes, free parking and lunches.

Oh yes, with all this belt tightening, they found the money to purchase a building that houses a non descript, second rate theatre group for over 1 Million Dollars and leasing it back to them for a buck a year all under the guise of providing culture for the denizens of this fair city. Thanks Mayor Miller, I'll provide my own culture, thank you...