{"id":2776,"date":"2008-02-11T12:00:34","date_gmt":"2008-02-11T17:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=2776"},"modified":"2013-01-21T14:08:25","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T19:08:25","slug":"board-of-trade-a-sign-of-things-to-come","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/02\/11\/board-of-trade-a-sign-of-things-to-come\/","title":{"rendered":"Board of Trade gives sign of things to come?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2260\/2127961435_bf2804bfe4.jpg?v=0\" height=\"381\" \/><\/p>\n<p>When some of Toronto&#8217;s most influential developers and the Board of Trade backed the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thestar.com\/News\/GTA\/article\/269092\">watered down<\/a> tax package that was adopted by City Council in October 2007, it signaled a shift in the right side of the stakeholder sphere that surrounds city hall. The aftershocks that ensued became apparent during deputations on the City&#8217;s operating budget last week.<\/p>\n<p>While I predicted the most significant fallout would be between the <a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=2442\">real estate and development<\/a> industries, that hasn&#8217;t been the case. Instead, the fault line that has emerged is the one between the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bot.com\/sub\/HomePages\/PublicHomePage.asp\">Toronto Board of Trade<\/a> and their former allies at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cfib.ca\/en\/default.asp?l=E\">Canadian Federation of Independent Business<\/a> and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.taxpayer.com\/main\/index.php\">Canadian Taxpayer Federation<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>For many years these three amigos were singing from the same song book: the City should cut taxes by taking a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153back to basics\u00e2\u20ac\u009d approach to setting priorities and contract out as much work as possible to the private sector. This triple threat coddled the Lastman regime during its tax freeze years and has pumped resources into the unofficial opposition to the Miller administration through advertising campaigns, polling and phone and email blitzes.<\/p>\n<p>Then, without warning, last Tuesday the BoT went solo as it <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bot.com\/assets\/StaticAssets\/Documents\/PDF\/Media\/2008\/Feb%205.08%20-%202008%20Toronto%20Budget%20Deputation.pdf\">told<\/a> [PDF] the City&#8217;s Budget Committee to raise residential property taxes another 3 per cent. The Board called it a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153surcharge\u00e2\u20ac\u009d dedicated to addressing the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/canada\/ottawa\/story\/2007\/11\/20\/ot-infrastructure-071120.html\">troubled state<\/a> of infrastructure in Toronto.<\/p>\n<p>Councillors on the Budget Committee were stunned and Budget Chief Shelley Carroll <a href=\"http:\/\/santaclausfund.ca\/News\/GTA\/article\/300892\">shot down<\/a> the proposal in the media immediately following the meeting. It became painfully obvious that the BoT&#8217;s proposal hadn&#8217;t even been out for a test drive on the second floor of city hall. This political fumble <a href=\"http:\/\/www.torontosun.com\/News\/Columnists\/Levy_Sue-Ann\/2008\/02\/10\/4838317-sun.php\">hung the BoT out to dry<\/a> in the winds of rejection gusting from all sides of the political landscape.<\/p>\n<p>I think what this almost impossible to explain 180-degree turn on BoT tax policy might be is signal of what&#8217;s to come from the blue ribbon <a href=\"http:\/\/wx.toronto.ca\/inter\/it\/newsrel.nsf\/9da959222128b9e885256618006646d3\/d7a68d8030bbf1978525737800579dc2?OpenDocument\">Fiscal Review Panel<\/a> that may report out before the end of this month.<\/p>\n<p>The BoT is represented on the Panel by board member <a href=\"http:\/\/www.genesiscapitalcorp.com\/ourteam\/bio-paul.shtml\">Paul Massara<\/a>. With Massara getting a close up of the City&#8217;s books, I would guess that the BoT did a quick calculation and realized that the books aren&#8217;t as bad as they thought. If that&#8217;s the case, they probably figured it would be better being ahead of the curve by changing their public position on the City&#8217;s finances now instead of appearing reactive after the Panel&#8217;s report is released.<\/p>\n<p>After the moment of truth that led them to realize that the City, in fact, has what is largely a revenue problem (as opposed to spending), the number of revenue options for the BoT to recommend was very limited. User fees wouldn&#8217;t provide enough revenue for the BoT wish list and everything but a residential property tax increase would have a financial impact on the Board&#8217;s members, which would be a political no-no for the BoT leadership.<\/p>\n<p>But because of their ham fisted politicking, the BoT won&#8217;t be recognized as leaders in the revenue debate. Instead they&#8217;ll be maligned and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.torontosun.com\/Comment\/Cartoon\/2008\/02\/08\/donato.jpg\">mocked<\/a> by their one-time allies and used by the Miller administration to ward off the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153tax and spend\u00e2\u20ac\u009d label.<\/p>\n<p><em>Photograph courtesy <a href=\"http:\/\/flickr.com\/photos\/tokyololas\/\">Tokyololas<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When some of Toronto&#8217;s most influential developers and the Board of Trade backed the watered down tax package that was adopted by City Council in October 2007, it signaled a shift in the right side of the stakeholder sphere that surrounds city hall. The aftershocks that ensued became apparent during deputations on the City&#8217;s operating<a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/02\/11\/board-of-trade-a-sign-of-things-to-come\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;Board of Trade gives sign of things to come?&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4037,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2915,2942,8106,4833,4309,8169,6391,756,8170,45,6673,8171,416,672,1276,19,1060],"class_list":["post-2776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-advertising-campaigns","tag-board-member","tag-bot","tag-budget-chief","tag-budget-committee","tag-canadian-federation-of-independent-business","tag-canadian-taxpayer-federation","tag-city-council","tag-citys-budget-committee","tag-funding-cities","tag-miller-administration","tag-paul-massara","tag-pdf","tag-real-estate","tag-shelley-carroll","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-board-of-trade"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Board of Trade gives sign of things to come? - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2008\/02\/11\/board-of-trade-a-sign-of-things-to-come\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Board of Trade gives sign of things to come? - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When some of Toronto&#8217;s most influential developers and the Board of Trade backed the watered down tax package that was adopted by City Council in October 2007, it signaled a shift in the right side of the stakeholder sphere that surrounds city hall. 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