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Newsstand: July 10, 2012

If you let Tuesday, here's what it'll do, it'll take care of you. In the news: Rob Ford wants to freeze taxes no matter what, Karen Stintz downplays the tax part in OneCity, Blue Jays lose another pitcher, an arrest in the York University sexual assaults, and a cat.

By • Illustration by Brett Lamb

Even ally councillors are not sure about Mayor Rob Ford’s proposal to not impose taxes on anyone ever. The mayor has asked for a two-year freeze on property taxes, which would keep rates below the pace of inflation. Ford seems to hope this unrealistic promise that demonstrates his ignorance of basic financial principles will help him win another election, which it very well could. And he’s already come up with a new catchy slogan: “I can’t support taxing the taxpayer.” Admit it, that does have a nice ring to it. Or is that a death knell?

TTC Chair Karen Stintz is downplaying the new tax proposal in her OneCity transit plan. Stintz wants councillors to focus instead on the plans for extending the Bloor-Danforth subway line in to Scarborough to replace the RT, and for an LRT line along the east-end waterfront. Wisely sensing that talking about taxes, much like talking about the need for regular colonoscopies, makes people squirmy, Stintz is urging councillors to just make transit a priority, and worry about the money later.

Already down two starters, the Blue Jays have lost another pitcher. Reliever Luis Perez will be out for the season after tearing a ligament. Obviously this isn’t a good sign for the Jays. But in what may be an even more troubling sign for Toronto sports fans, the Toronto Star’s architecture critic is deigning to discuss organized sports in his column. Chris Hume attempts to link Steve Nash’s decision to pass over the Raptors to the loss of senior bureaucrats at City Hall, in what can only be described as, “really?”

Police have arrested a 20-year-old man in connection with three sexual assaults on York University’s campus last week. Though the incidents happened on Thursday and Friday, some students say there wasn’t much effort on the part of the school to alert students until Monday.

In case you hadn’t noticed, the intersection at Queen and Spadina is still closed.

And we leave you this Tuesday with a story about a cat. Because it’s Tuesday. And because, y’know, the internet.

Comments

  • Anonymous

    1 Bring back the goddamn vehicle registration tax.
    2 COLLECT parking fines. No pay, no renew license. No bargain deals for UPS, FedEx, etc who negotiate millions in fines down to a pittance.
    3 Infrastructure user tax on people who work here but don’t live here. 2 bucks per paycheque.

    • Anonymous

      There has to be some cost sharing between the GTA and surrounding regions and Toronto. We all benefit from better transit. Many forget or do not realize that $9 billion (last number I have seen) leaves Toronto and goes to either the feds or the province.
      Toronto supports the GTA and the rest of the country only fair that they support Toronto

      • Anonymous

        Absolutely. This is not a new concept and has been used successfully elsewhere. Did you know that New York charges a 0.34% payroll tax dedicated purely to transit? (DryDry’s” $2 per paycheque”). Read up on “commuter tax” here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commuter_tax

  • Anonymous

    “Ford seems to hope this unrealistic promise that demonstrates his ignorance of basic financial principals will help him win another election, which it very well could.”

    Well said, Torontoist. Well said.

    • Egrrrl12

      I think SJB is my favourite Newstand writer.

      • Anonymous

        Seconded. :)

    • Pg

      Yep.

      (Though I think “principals” should read “principles”, no?)

      • http://twitter.com/torontoist Torontoist

        It should, and now it is! We have made the change above.

        Thanks for pointing this out.

  • Anonymous

    Stintz&co need(ed) to start studying up on how to sell their grand vision. Photo-ops on grossly overcrowded subways, buses and streets would be a good beginning. Time to get down and dirty wif da peeps. No way for Ford to spin this: transit is grossly inadequate, and only getting worse (thanks in no small part to him). The latest polls show most Torontonians already with this. Now GET. IN. OUR. FACES.

  • Anonymous

    Who didn’t foresee that Stintz’s transit tax would be a hard sell? Now Ford’s positioning himself (again) as the won’t-raise-taxes guy.

  • OgtheDim

    Negatives are not a good catch phrase.

  • Hollow Island

    The Jays are down three starters, not two.

    And Ford’s phrase is moronic. Taxpayers are called that because they pay taxes. If he doesn’t want to tax taxpayers, what will be become? Puddles? Or would we become people again?

    • Anonymous

      We become people-who-don’t-pay-taxes-but-still-consume-gov’t-services-and-infrastructure.

      • Anonymous

        Let that libertarian nutjob Mark Teehee explain it…

    • Vampchick21

      Freeloaders? Kinda like the guy who crashes on your couch, raids your fridge and makes calls to ‘dating chat lines’ on your phone for a few months and then takes off.

    • Vampchick21

      Freeloaders? Kinda like the guy who crashes on your couch, raids your fridge and makes calls to ‘dating chat lines’ on your phone for a few months and then takes off.

  • Guest

    But isn’t just having a plan witout a way to pay for it why everyone heaped derision upon Ford? Granted, his plan was stupid, but it seemed the lion’s share of the attacks were about the fact that he had a plan he couldn’t pay for and that that was also the reason why Council shot that plan down. Well, so now do Stintz and deBaeremaker. I expect Council should treat it the same. Isn’t this now just Transit City again, minus all the money and some assessments? I fully admit that I haven’t done a lot of research into OneCity, so I’m happy to hear how I’m wrong.

    • Anonymous

      Here’s where you’re wrong:

      Stintz and deBaeremaker did have a very specific and well-articulated funding proposal: a new property tax levy dedicated to transit, plus federal and provincial contributions.

      They also pointed out that their proposal is a starting point (only), for a much-needed discussion of future transit needs, ways and means.

      A poll conducted by The Star shortly after their announcement showed broad support for this among taxpayers in this city.

      And no, it isn’t Transit City all over as even a cursory examination will reveal (try doing this before posting again, please).

      The usual suspect naysayers and spoilers have already begun their keening — a sure sign the plan has real merit, and it scares them silly.

      Look, we all need better transit, and that is going to cost us. No way out.

    • Anonymous

      It worries me that there are people – voters – in this city who think OneCity (or Transit City, if we rewind the clock) and Ford’s Candyland wish list are comparable in any way.

      • Guest

        They are comparable in exactly this way: no one has made any commitment to pay for any of them. That was the only point I wanted to make with my comment. I’m all for thoughtful transit plans, but if people bash Ford for having no plan to pay for his Candyland wish list then the same bashing has to be applied to Stintz and deBaeremaker’s now funding-less plan. I agree that Ford’s ‘plan’ was next to useless, and that it’s a significant step up to either of Transit City or OneCity in terms of actual planning, but without funding strategies one’s just as much good to the city as the next.

        • Anonymous

          Again I find I have to point out to “Guest” that the S&dBM proposal does include a funding component.

          Is there some part of that you can’t get your head around, or are you deliberately trying to spin it ‘no better than’ Ford’s subway fantasies?

          It’s really too bad a number of councillors could not resist punting the transit funding football yet again, instead of agreeing to sit down and having an adult conversation about it.

          The city is more than ready, now we just need mayoral candidate wannabes to choke on their own vomit.

  • Vampchick21

    I just want to know where Ford thinks the money will come from to pay for necessary city services and infrastructure? If he doesn’t tax the taxpayers, what’s he going to do? And the private money idea just bugs the hell out of me, private enterprise should not be paying for municipal services or have the government at any level beholden to them in that way. That’s what I really don’t understand about this particular type of thought process….they don’t want the government to be too big or too hands on, but are perfectly fine with coporations taking over?

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