After all, they’re still our tax dollars

My wife – yes, I’ve been saying that frequently and deliberately lately because it hasn’t stopped being fun – was about as unhappy about the Ford victory as I was. But she had a really interesting idea this morning, and I’d like to share it with you.

“You know,” my wife said in an email, “the abolition of the land transfer tax will probably save us about $6,000+ whenever we next buy a house. So, whenever we do that… we should make sure to spend that money on the arts, and charities providing services cut by Ford.
 
“In fact,” my wife said, “we should do that with any money we save from Ford cuts. We are not just taxpayers, we are city builders, and we love Toronto.”

My wife’s got a point. From a practical point of view, the abolition of certain taxes is essentially a decision on the part of the city not to spend a certain amount of our money on our behalf. And if that money’s staying in our pocket, then don’t we have a right to spend it the way our version of a better city would have spent it?

Sure, it would take a little research to determine exactly how our tax dollars have previously been allocated. Yes, we might choose to favour some services and pass on funding others. But aren’t these options better than simply saying “Boy, it sucks that we enabled Ford to make these tax cuts,” and then just pocketing the money we get to keep as a result? In a weird sort of way, we could actually thank Ford for enabling us to do the job his city council likely won’t.

Now, it’s obviously not as sunny as all that. For one thing, these proposed tax cuts unfortunately wouldn’t affect a lot of the people who didn’t vote for Ford. The city gains the bulk of its tax income from property taxes, and contrary to the absurd notion that Ford’s election represents a victory over the Toronto elite, a great many people who opposed him are young renters who don’t own taxable property.

Nonetheless, I think we can all get together on taking stock of whatever tax cuts occur in our future, identifying the spending that the city’s not doing as a result, and encouraging taxpayers to do the job directly as they see fit. What do you say, Toronto?

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