Cross-posted from Eye Daily.
It’s official: NDP leader Howard Hampton has announced that, if elected, his party would not only upload some of the social services that were downloaded onto Ontario cities in the late 1990s but also pay for half the cost of operating public transit. Let the bidding wars for Toronto votes begin! Altogether, Hampton’s promise would lift $600 million from city budgets across the province. In Toronto alone, it would mean $221 million in savings next year and $400 million by 2011.
The uploading would include court security costs (which total around $40 million in Toronto, the equivalent of hiring 500 new police officers) and paying for drug and disability support plans by 2011 (which would equal $175 million). Hampton has also promised to cover the province’s fair share of cost-shared programs, which include, shelters, child care and the cost of administering Ontario Works. (This year the province’s failure to pay for its share of these costs totaled $71 million.) The $110 million that would pay for 50 percent of the TTC’s operating costs would go towards freezing transit fares.
How is Hampton going to pay for all of this? So far he hasn’t said — though there’s no word yet on any promises not to raise taxes. Whether Hampton will be brave enough to admit that Ontarians might need to pay a bit more for the services they need remains to be seen. Either way, Torontonians can depend on their taxes going up. Hampton’s promises, however, could stave off increases in property taxes that the city might have to implement if new funds aren’t found anywhere else.
So far, neither John Tory nor Dalton McGuinty have promised anything specific, but many are hoping that Hampton’s pledge will pressure them to come out with plans of their own for how to solve municipalities’ funding problems. The closer we get to the October 10 election, the more difficult it will be for them to brush this issue off.
