Mayor Rob Ford’s fiscal record gets a ‘meh’

Mayor Rob Ford celebrated the second anniversary of his landslide 2010 election win last week with a deluge of talk radio interviews. According to the mayor, despite some personal gaffes, his administration has a fiscal record worth crowing about.

It’s a simple message, and one that could resonate: Yeah, Toronto, your mayor gets himself into some downright weird situations sometimes, but he’s saving the city money. That’s the important thing.

But there’s a problem. The city’s budget numbers don’t really validate that story.

In fact, the city’s overall fiscal direction in 2012 looks a lot like it did in 2010, prior to the election. City manager Joe Pennachetti, appointed to the post by the previous council, has continued to drive annual efficiencies through internal review processes. The Land Transfer Tax, a Mayor David Miller production, keeps bringing in sizable annual surpluses. Toronto’s credit rating remains high.

And property taxes continue to increase slowly, at a rate that ensures Toronto homeowners pay a significantly lower percentage than their suburban neighbours.

Ford has had his fiscal victories, of course. Biggest among them would be the four-year deal his team secured with public sector unions last February. But most of the other savings this mayor has wrangled from the city operating budget have come from a willingness to cut things like transit service — something Ford guaranteed he wouldn’t do while campaigning for office.

Other victories, like slashing councillor office budgets, resulted in savings so small they’ve had no real impact on Toronto’s overall fiscal position.

And then there’s the litany of promises made during 2010’s heated mayoral race. It’s always a sad game to attempt to hold politicians to their campaign promises, but the Ford experience stands out as particularly depressing.

A few weeks before Election Day, Ford’s team pushed out a “Financial Impact Statement”, a spreadsheet detailing their candidate’s budget platform. It called for $525 million in sustainable savings in 2011 and $695 million in 2012.

Actual savings linked to Ford policies amount to barely a fraction of those figures.

Claims that the city could save $80 million a year by eliminating the fair wage policy haven’t come to fruition. Nor has the suggestion that the city could skim $100 million off the budget through “transparent and competitive tendering.” And the notion that City Hall could shed 3 per cent of its workforce each year, saving about $300 million, never made any mathematical sense to begin with.

Meanwhile, Toronto’s actual apocalyptic financial scenario remains unaddressed. This city has an infrastructure deficit that requires billions of dollars for things like transit expansion, crumbling highways, waterfront development and affordable housing.

Bet no one wanted to talk about that at the Rob Ford anniversary party.