City council tackled Mayor Rob Ford hard Tuesday, reversing $20 million in proposed cuts to pools, arenas, daycares, TTC service and homeless shelters and brushing aside his stern demand to leave the budget surplus untouched.Councillor Josh Colle, after days of intense negotiations among fellow centrists, progressives and a couple of conservatives, tabled a surprise omnibus motion Tuesday morning to rescue $15 million worth of services.
That set up a raucous nail-biter as Ford allies tried desperately to cajole several supporters of the motion to stick to his tough, year-in-the-making fiscal plan and prevent the biggest defeat in Ford’s tumultuous term.
Tuesday evening, the packed council chamber erupted in cheers as Colle’s motion passed 23-21, followed by others that restored another roughly $5 million in funding to Toronto’s $9.4 billion operating budget.
The money will increase youth programming in priority centres; keep arenas open weekdays; save pools and homeless shelters threatened with closure; reverse planned cuts to transit service; and continue special mechanical leaf pickup in parts of Etobicoke and Scarborough.
“I think it was as simple as listening to what I was hearing from constituents,” Colle (Ward 15 Eglinton Lawrence) said after the final budget vote. “I’m definitely not a hero — just listening to what constituents wanted and trying to strike that always-difficult balance around the budget.
Public sentiment was key to moving some councillors behind Colle’s motion. Thousands of emails clogged their inboxes, almost 13,000 Torontonians filled out surveys on which services they cherish and hundreds of people made deputations to various committee meanings, including two that went all night.
Colle said councillors rejected Ford’s grave warnings that using even one dollar of the $154 million surplus from 2011 to maintain services this year would be reckless reliance on unsustainable funding.
“We settled on a prudent budget that was fiscally responsible and addressed some of the concerns that people brought up,” he said.
After huddling with advisers, Ford claimed victory because council heeded his call to limit the property tax increase to 2.5 per cent, and left a sizable chunk of the surplus to be applied to the TTC’s $700 million purchase of new streetcars.
The budget raises municipal taxes by $60 on the average home (assessed at ($447,090), to $2,459.89. That figure excludes education taxes, which will be set before final tax bills go out in the spring.
The mayor stressed that the $9.4 billion spending plan still represents a reduction from the 2011 budget of about $30 million, albeit not the $50 million spending cut he wanted.
“We are spending less money this year than we did last year,” Ford told reporters. “We are starting to change the culture here at city hall. We are turning the Queen Mary.
“I think it’s a huge victory.”
But his arch enemies on councils’ left were jubilant.
“Torontonians won this,” said Councillor Joe Mihevc. “He (Ford) lost every single vote today that was put on the table, save one around contracting out janitors, so there’s no way you can say that he saved the day, that he won the day.
“The majority of councillors at the end listened to their constituents, their bosses, who were saying it’s intolerable to hurt the quality of life of Torontonians.”
But Ford’s opponents weren’t able to save everything. Program cuts will still mean mass layoffs in the months ahead.
And an attempt to keep High Park’s zoo open after June 30 failed. But Councillor Sarah Doucette said she will seek new revenues to cover the $114,000 annual cost to keep the zoo running.
“It gives me a chance to show we can get revenue, we can build the zoo. I’m not giving up,” said Doucette (Ward 13, Parkdale-High Park).
Original Article
Source: Star
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