No revenue? No problem. Right, Mayor Ford?

Marcus Gee, Opinion, The Globe and Mail:

When he was a cranky city councillor, Rob Ford always denied that the city needed to take in more money. City hall, he said over and over, “has a spending problem, not a revenue problem.” Yet now that he is in charge, Toronto is considering more and higher user fees for city services. The aim, quite obviously, is to collect more money.

Along with its department-by-department service review, the city is taking an exhaustive look at what it charges on everything from marriage licences and ice time to children’s swimming lessons and yoga classes for seniors. If the city is offering something for less than it costs to deliver, city manager Joe Pennachetti said on Monday, it will consider “full cost recovery.” In other words, the user pays the whole freight, with no hidden subsidy from the city. On top of that, says Pennachetti’s report, the city will seek “additional opportunities for collecting user fees.” Translation: It will consider charging for things that it doesn’t now.

It is a far cry from what Mr. Ford promised as a candidate for mayor. Under his “respect for taxpayers” banner, he said repeatedly that city hall should stop reaching into citizens’ pockets and cut its out-of-control spending instead. If the city got a buck for every time he repeated his “spending problem, not a revenue problem” mantra, it could wipe out its budget shortfall in a blink.

Once he became mayor, one of the first things he did was announce a freeze in property taxes and an end to the vehicle registration tax. But user fees come from the same pockets of the same overburdened folk that taxes do. His platform said nothing about higher user fees. Of course, it said nothing about service cuts either. Mr. Ford “guaranteed” there would not be any. Now we are facing the threat of both service cuts and higher fees.

His administration has already raised fees by $23-million to balance the 2011 budget and help make up for the loss of revenue from the vehicle tax. Fees for a host of programs went up about 3 per cent. The current review of fees is bound to recommend yet further hikes, putting more pressure on taxpayers.

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