Gas tax for cities...

Mayor Miller’s 1¢ of the GST NOW campaign (or $5 billion in total with $400-$500 million in Toronto) is certainly a good strategy to address Toronto’s fiscal problems, although inherently risky. Indeed, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty quickly “shot down” the Mayor’s plan.

Cities can feel justifiably aggrieved by the damage done to their budgets through service down-loading, but any calls for increased funding by senior governments are more likely now to fall on deaf ears following the federal government recent reduction of the GST rate one percentage point to 6%.

So the real risk in Mayor’s strategy is that our senior levels of governments may take the view that since Toronto has not yet used its new powers granted to them under the City of Toronto Act to raise revenues, they are really being asked to subsidize the city and refuse his request. Which means the mayor’s plan is needs a good defense strategy!

The 1¢ NOW campaign is clearly part of an evolving multi strategy plan to get Toronto out of its fiscal predicament. But, what if this initiative was articulated as part of a broad, national and local strategic framework or plan, extracted from Mayor's Miller's "What makes a city great" vision? Voters would clearly see the mayor’s local successes while minimizing any potential political fall-out should this and other high risk initiatives like “National Transit Strategy” get blocked by senior governments.

These larger, more politically risky funding initiatives could then be place in the context of striving to achieve the impossible, but striving none the less. Local success could be highlighted and promoted, but with the big ticket strategies like the gas tax, the risks would be minimized and any successes would be all gravy come election time!