Budget Blues

Royson James had a good column last week (Feb. 15) about the city’s budget deficit - currently about $450-million to $500-million for 2006. He makes a good point in questioning why the city continues to hope that Queen’s Park will come to its rescue while ignoring the fact it makes no sense to continually dive into the pocket of residents through property taxes, user fees, water costs, etc. Unfortunately, there are mixed messages coming from city hall: they attempt to give themselves raises and bend every time their unionized employees threaten to withdraw services. I’m not sure why the city doesn’t face fiscal reality and simply say there’s no money in the coffers for higher salaries - just like most companies have been telling their employees for the past few years. Instead, Toronto continues to operate as if everything will be fine as long as Queen’s Park bails us out.