Marcus Gee smacks down Rob Ford on budget

The Globe and Mail:

How? Well, nobody really knows. The TTC says its share will come from an “unspecified budget reduction.” That was the phrase someone scribbled on the budget document presented to the transit commission on Wednesday. “Ten-cent fare increase” was crossed out in pen, “unspecified budget reduction” written in. That is how rushed and haphazard this sped-up budget blitz has been. Officials are almost literally rearranging the city’s finances on the back of a napkin.

But the real fault lies with Mr. Ford, who came to office vowing to cut taxes and waste without any credible plan for doing it. His platitude-filled campaign focused on cutting things like councillor expense budgets and free meals at overtime council meetings, symbolic cuts that have barely dented the city’s $9-billion-plus budget.

Now that he is mayor, Mr. Ford seems to think that if he talks sternly enough about the need for cost-cutting, city managers will simply snap to it. Instead – lacking any real direction about what they should cut or how, told to hold the line on taxes and fares but avoid any major cuts in service – they are flailing about in confusion. It’s the inevitable result when you have a mayor who ran on slogans and governs on bluster.

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