Cross-posted from Eye Daily.
This morning Mayor David Miller announced the panel of experts that will review the city’s financial books to see whether they are indeed up to snuff and make recommendations on where further efficiencies can be found. The independent, non-partisan, volunteer panel will report back in February 2008 before council considers the 2008 budget. Why Miller didn’t decide to put such a panel together earlier is unknown (when a reporter posed this question during the press conference, the Mayor said he couldn’t provide an answer). It may be because Miller and his staff are confident that the city has been doing a good job of managing its money, after all, its not as though there haven’t been internal and external budget reviews in the past. The public and a number of city councillors, however, aren’t so sure that the city’s finances are sound. If they indeed are, they want proof, along with outside opinions from outside economists on ways the government could reduce spending moving forward.
Agreeing to form the panel was a good move on Miller’s part. If the city’s books are truly in order, the panel’s findings will only reinforce what he has been saying all along. It may also help him win a vote or two from councillors still undecided about the proposed taxes. And, hey, the panel might even propose some good cost saving ideas.
One of the things that frustrates me about the debate on the land transfer and vehicle registration taxes is that it seems that may people have the impression that there are two choices: we can solve our fiscal problems by voting in the new taxes, or we can solve them by cutting costs. In fact, both of these things have to occur (along with further help from the federal and provincial governments) if Toronto is going to clean up its fiscal mess. Depending on just one of these solutions in not an option if we want to avoid deep, quality-of-life-altering cuts. All things considered, getting advice on previously unthought of ways to save money wouldn’t hurt.
The “independent fiscal review panel†includes:
Panel chair: Bill Hutchenson, real estate executive, president of CB Richard Eillis Ltd.
Lorna Marsden, former president of York University
Rahul Bhardwaj, CEO of the United Way of York Region
Paul Massara, head of private equity firm Genesis Corporation
Jim Stanford, economist with the Canadian Autoworkers Union
Larry Tanenbaum, chair of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment
For full bios of panel members, visit the Toronto Star.
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Photo courtesy Miles Storey
