Raining on Ford’s parade

[CHIMO]

Toronto city hall’s “core service review” has produced few significant savings to balance the city’s books. But it has been a revelation in other, troubling ways.

It has exposed a mayor, Rob Ford, who lacks a basic grasp of the city’s finances. It confirms how off-base he was with his claims of rampant gravy. And it could end up being more about downsizing municipal government than prudent stewardship of ratepayer dollars.

In a radio interview on the John Oakley Show last week Ford made the astonishing claim that salaries and benefits represent 80 per cent of the city’s operating budget. In fact, they represent about 48 per cent. One would think the chief executive of the $9.4 billion enterprise that is the City of Toronto would have at least a basic grasp of the city’s key numbers. In Ford’s case, one would be wrong.

Again and again, Ford’s thinking has been at odds with reality. Unable to find the buckets of bureaucratic “gravy” that he had expected, Ford budgeted $3 million to have outside consultants pore over the city’s books and find easy savings. Few observers, at this point, would deem that a success.

[RedSock]

1. i always assumed ford liked gravy

http://www.thegridto.com/city/politics/top-five-ford-truthiness-fact-checks-of-the-week/

Top five Ford truthiness fact checks of the week

1. Toronto spends 80 per cent of its budget on payroll
TRUTH: Labour costs account for 48 per cent of the city’s budget.


2. Ford has already cut the Toronto budget by $70 million
TRUTH: $64 million of that money was not cut from spending, as Ford seems to claim, but cut from revenue, in the form of the elimination of the Vehicle Registration Tax. This does not save the city money, it costs the city money—the exact opposite of his claim.


3. Libraries in Etobicoke outnumber Tim Horton’s Franchises
TRUTH: Tim Hortons franchises outnumber public libraries in Etobicoke—where Doug Ford lives—by a margin of three to one. There are 13 public libraries in Etobicoke, and 39 Tim Hortons franchises.

...

[CHIMO]

2. Fight library cuts, maybe get Margaret Atwood at your book club

Celebrated writer Margaret Atwood is offering personal visits to some book clubs as part of her online campaign to spare Toronto’s libraries from Mayor Rob Ford’s budget knife.

On Thursday, Atwood retweeted a Twitter message asking people to sign an online petition, started by the library workers’ union, telling City Hall to ignore city-hired consultant KPMG’s suggestion to “rationalize the footprint of libraries to reduce service levels, closing some branches.”

Many of Atwood’s more than one-quarter million Twitter followers complied and promptly crashed the server hosting the petition, which was restored in about a half-hour when the union upgraded to an unlimited bandwidth package.

Atwood has since kept up the pressure, with many of her tweets referencing a recent quip on radio by Councillor Doug Ford that: “We have more libraries per person than any other city in the world. I’ve got more libraries in my area than I have Tim Hortons.”

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1029718--fight-library-cuts-maybe-get-margaret-atwood-at-your-book-club

Lesson to date: Some people are as stupid, as they appear!