A realistic plan:
Robyn Doolittle
Urban Affairs Reporter
Rocco Rossi is prescribing some bitter medicine to heal Toronto's financial woes in the form of his fiscal plan.
No tax cuts or freezes and a tough line with the city's unions are central to balancing the 2011 budget, he says.
But through reduced labour costs, contracting-out and opening up non-essential services to outside bidders, Rossi says he will be able to trim $460 million from the annual budget by the end of his first term.
"With my fiscal plan, what you see is what you will get. No sugar coating. No typical politician 'Tell them what they want to hear,'" he said from his Yorkville campaign office.
At a time when the city needs to find $503 million in savings to balance the 2011 budget, Toronto can't afford impractical promises, he said.
"Unlike my two principal opponents … I'm not offering unrealistic tax freezes or cuts. But neither will I have to resort to painful service cuts and labour strife to pay for rash election promises," he said. "A little sacrifice, a little restraint, and a whole lot of progress each and every year."
Rossi's plan is being praised in some quarters as the most realistic of the four. Frontrunner Rob Ford has promised to do away with both the vehicle registration tax and land transfer tax if elected.
2 comments:
I like Rossi. However, you need to cut taxes in order to cut spending. Ford knows this.
The less money government gets its greedy hands on, the more its forced cut.
A vote for Ford will send a message to council that the people mean buisness.
Wonder if he will sugar coat his defeat?
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