Over at the Toronto Star this morning, Robyn Doolittle takes a look at what all that “Stop the Gravy Train” rhetoric has amounted to. Spoiler alert: it’s nothing.
But when the city is $774 million short, a hundred thousand here and a million there don’t go very far to fill that hole.
It’s a lesson that Rob Ford’s team is also learning.
Insiders — ranging from members of the budget and executive committees to city financial staff — say that bubbling pot of gravy still hasn’t been found. The financial renaissance Ford campaigned on is still a few years away, they say.
via Looking for the gravy – thestar.com.
The article confirms that the mayor will be releasing a draft 2012 budget sometime this spring, which will at least give everyone a lot of time to argue about it. Apparently Caribana, TIFF, The Zoo, police funding and community grants are all on the table as ways to save money. (But not much money.)
Selling assets is an option, though Doug Ford says Toronto Hydro is not on the table. Selling the Toronto Parking Authority would be an incredibly short-sighted move (Just raise rates! That’s what the private sector would do!) but could happen.
Best part? “The goal is to be Mississauga, Doug Ford said.” They should have made that their campaign slogan.