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{Fact check: How true are Rob Ford's economic claims?}
Featured VideoClose More Video UAVs Poised to Be $11 Billion Yearly Business Rob Ford says videos blown out of proportion The $20 Air Conditioner $50-million lotto-winning family says they will stay grounded Mayor Rob Ford touted his fiscal and economic record in a speech to a high-end men’s fitness club on Wednesday. He’ll likely repeat many of the same claims during his 2014 election campaign — but some of them are not accurate. Here’s a fact-check of 11 of the things he said.1) “I’m very proud today that Toronto’s tax increase over the last three years is lower than any North American city.”Toronto's property tax increases under Ford — no increase in 2011, 2.5 per cent in 2012, 2 per cent in 2013 — are certainly lower than the increases in the vast majority of major Canadian and American municipalities. But is Toronto actually the very best on the continent? No. Windsor, Ontario has frozen taxes for five years. San Antonio, Texas did not increase property tax rates at all in 2011, 2012 or 2013 — after reducing them in 2008, 2009 and 2010. “We have not had a property tax increase for 21 years,” said San Antonio finance director Troy Elliott. San Antonio voters did approve a sales tax hike in 2012 to finance a pre-kindergarten program, but that increase will cost the median household only about $8 annually.2)“I said from Day 1: the city has a spending problem, not a revenue problem. I have proved my statement to be correct.”It is very questionable whether Ford has indeed proved this claim.Council needed to create a new revenue tool — a Ford-endorsed special property tax levy — to pay for the Scarborough subway extension Ford pushed for this year, and Ford is now asking the federal government for hundreds of millions of dollars he says are needed for the project. Ford’s signature transit proposal, a Sheppard subway extension, was defeated after he failed to come up with a plan to find the revenue needed to pay for it.In 2011, Ford asked the provincial government for $153 million in funding for specific projects and to cover half the TTC operating budget — threatening to unleash “Ford Nation” on the premier if he didn’t comply. Ford’s budgets have hiked user fees for programs to allow the budget to remain balanced despite low tax increases. And Ford has repeatedly lamented the massive backlog for repairs in TCHC buildings. 3)“Before I took office, any annual surplus was used to fill holes in bloated operating budgets. Guaranteed, this will not happen while I’m mayor. We have put an end to the unsustainable budget practices of the last administration. It is over.”In 2013, Ford did end the practice of using surpluses from previous years to help balance the current year’s operating budget. But it is at least slightly misleading to say “this will not happen while I’m mayor”: it did,[url=http://www.longchamp-handbags-outlet.net]longchamp sale[/url], twice. Ford’s 2011 budget used $346 million in surplus money, and his 2012 budget used $102 million.In addition, Ford used “unsustainable” methods to balance even his 2013 budget: the budget used $47 million from reserve funds.4)“Our new surplus management policy dictates that 75 per cent of any annual surplus now goes towards funding our capital needs.”The policy of allocating 75 per cent of the surplus to capital reserves is far from new: it was created by council under then-mayor David Miller in 2004. Ford has been especially determined to stick to the old policy, which was regularly ignored during Miller’s tenure.5)“It’s frustrating as hell getting from Point A to Point B in this city. ‘Rob, you have to do something, you have to do something.’ We’re doing something, folks. This traffic signal coordination will help improve the flow of traffic at over 1,000 intersections across the city.”Traffic signal coordination is occurring, and Ford made the city’s report on the issue his “mayor’s key item” when it arrived at council. But a Ford critic, Councillor Josh Matlow, not Ford, put forth the council motion that got the city to produce the report and accompanying plan. Matlow says “there was no evidence of the mayor’s involvement” during the process.6)“My administration negotiated historic labour deals — deals that are helping us improve efficiency and save hundreds of millions of dollars.”According to the city, the administration’s collective agreements with CUPE Local 416 and Local 79 will save a total of $141 million over four years. The deals were widely hailed as major accomplishments.7)“Because of our fiscal discipline, international bond rating agencies, like Moody’s and DBRS, have kept Toronto's credit rating strong.”As Ford implicitly acknowledges, Toronto’s bond rating is the same under Ford today (Aa1 from Moody’s, AA from DBRS) as it was under the leadership of Miller, who he says was lacking in fiscal discipline. The ratings have not changed, in fact, since 2002, near the end of Mel Lastman’s tenure. 8)“Over the next 10 years, we are reducing our city debt by over $804 million.”That’s the idea. But as Metro’s Matt Elliott has noted, the plan assumes the city can pay for capital purchases in ways other than taking on debt. One of those ways is a vaguely defined “financing strategy” that is supposed to produce $1.2 billion through such methods as the sale of city assets. It’s far from certain that this mystery money will materialize. 9)“As many of you know, I came from the private sector before I got into politics. Very, very fortunate to run my dad’s company that he started 50 years ago.”Ford was involved in some capacity in the family business, Deco Labels and Tags, but there is no evidence he ever ran the company. His brother, Councillor Doug Ford, is the company president.10)“It was unheard-of to say we're spending less money one year than we did the previous year. It has never happened before. Folks, it is happening right before your eyes.”Ford can fairly take credit for reining in spending. Claiming that spending is actually going down, though, is misleading. Follow along here.Ford has presided over three budgets. Though he has slowed the pace of spending growth — and come close to stopping it totally — spending has actually increased a little bit each year: from $9.38 billion in 2011 to $9.39 billion in 2012 to $9.43 billion in 2013.So how can Ford claim that spending dropped? The figures above are for the budgets approved by council at the beginning of the year. Council also makes minor adjustments during the year. During 2011, the budget council originally approved at $9.38 billion eventually grew to $9.41 billion. Therefore, the beginning-of-the-year 2012 budget, $9.39 billion, was $20 million less than the end-of-year-2011 budget.That $20 million reduction is the basis of Ford’s claim. The problem with the claim is that — according to numbers and comments city officials provided Friday — spending didn’t stay reduced for long. By the end of 2012, the adjusted budget had risen to $9.42 billion, $10 million more than the adjusted 2011 budget.In sum: spending shrank for a brief moment in time, but it then grew again. And, regardless, the 2013 beginning-of-the-year budget was $9.43 billion, higher than the end-of-year 2012 budget and the beginning-of-the-year 2013 budget. A spending decline may have happened, but it is not “happening” now.Finally, these numbers are for the “gross” budget, which includes all city spending, even the spending funded by money from other levels of government — in other words, spending which isn’t coming directly out of Toronto pockets. (Ford has argued that there is “only one taxpayer.”) The “net” budget has grown every year under Ford, from $3.58 billion in 2011 to $3.69 billion in 2012 to $3.71 billion in 2013.11) “Since 2010, we've been focused on creating conditions that boost employment in this great city, and today, folks, it is paying off. Again, these numbers do not lie. After a prolonged period of moving sideways, the unemployment rate in Toronto is very noticeably dropping. Toronto has experienced positive job growth for three years in a row. Since I’ve taken office,[url=http://www.longchamp-handbags-outlet.net]longchamp le pliage[/url], we've created 40,000 new, good-paying jobs in this great city.”The city’s unemployment rate has dropped dramatically this year, down to just over 8 per cent in May from just under 10 per cent at the same time in 2012. It was lower in May than it had been at any time since December 2008, though it was higher than those of every other big Canadian city other than Montreal.The source of Ford’s “40,000 new, good-paying jobs” claim is not clear. There were 1.33 million employed residents in May, up from 1.25 million In January 2010, the month after Ford took office.
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