Making an ASS out of U and ME

David Soknacki, the City of Toronto Budget Chief.

No, not the Greek cheese soaked in brandy and then set on fire only to be put out with a quick splash of fresh lemon juice – though that's saganaki. Also not the well known environmentalist and host of the CBC television show “The Nature of Things” – that’s David Suzuki.

If you don’t live or work in the Centre of the Universe in the post Mel Lastman era, you can be excused for not having heard of him before now, but let me assure you that he does qualify for Tool of the Day.

As the city Budget Chief, you might expect that it’s his job to make sure that the budget is balanced, to exercise fiscal responsibility, to be responsible fiscally, in short, to ensure that the city isn’t spending more money than it’s taking in. Sounds simple enough, especially with an army of bean counters at your disposal.

There are issues, of course.

At the municpal level, your tax revenues come from property taxes. So while your population may grow, your tax base doesn’t. Ergo you’re going to have to raise taxes on a fairly regular basis.

It doesn’t help that the previous Tory government at Queen’s park forced amalgamation on everyone in sight and downloaded a whole bunch of expenses on the City to boot. But as this was done to most of the rest of the province, too, it’s beginning to sound suspiciously like whining.

Throw in things like the ongoing MFP scandal and inquiry fallout (wherein through the corruption of various persons and officials, the centre of the universe paid something more than $80 million for about $45 million in computer things and services that were probably only worth about $3) and you know that there are financial issues at City Hall.

Balancing a little bit of this, the current Liberal government at Queen’s Park, while having a large number of problems of its own, not least of which is the standard Liberal arrogance we’ve all come to know and hate, has thrown a little money to the City in the form of some transit funding, a little emergency funding, and a share of the gas tax (which, incidentally, everyone received and Toronto got more than a fair share of, but that’s a subject for a different sort of rant).

Knowing all of this and knowing that many people know all of this, Mr. Soknacki has come up with a draft of next year’s budget. Aside from the predicted property tax increase on both residential and commercial properties, and the unsurprising need to find millions of dollars in services cuts to provide some savings, there’s a strange assumption built into the budget.

The province, Davie-boy believes, is going to fork over an extra $90 million or to bail out Toronto once again because he wrote it into the document. He didn’t ask. He didn’t talk to Queen’s Park at all, in fact. He just wrote in the line item and said something like, "There, that will balance things out."

This defies logic. Maybe it makes sense on some political level that I just don't understand. Dad, I blew my entire paycheck on wine, women, and song so I sent you my bills this month. Thanks!

David, David, David. Haven’t you ever heard the old saying about the word “assume?” See today’s category, you Tool.