Bloor West Toonin'/Town Cryn' 15

January's Town Crier cartoon. Ah yes. Toronto Council and their spending habits. How did it get to this, that it would motivate me to draw a cartoon on the subject? Well, you see, once upon a time there were two Toronto city councillors named Rob Ford and Doug Holyday who apparently have spent so little of their $53,100 annual office budgets that it upset the other councillors very much, because many of the other councillors very happily spent just about all of their own budgets. So because of their apparent thriftiness (and their apparent lack of receipts) these two fellows were subjected to a council-ordered investigation. Well that did not please Rob Ford, I can tell you, so enterprising fellow that he is, he decided to post what other Toronto councillors have been spending their office budgets on, on his own web site. Now trust me, I am no fan of either Rob Ford or Holyday, but I must confess that it was a clever move. And it certainly was interesting to see what councillors were doing with the money that we gave them. Sometimes it ain't exactly what one would consider necessary spending in order to better the city. Oh, and yes, you can bet that the other councillors were none to happy to have their own spending for everyone to see. The end result? The city is now going to examine councillor spending. Naturally I had my doubts as to how effective this would be, but surprise surprise, city councillors have voted away their free dinners, which will save taxpayers $23,000 a year. No it's not a huge amount of cash, but it's a start. I bet if they tried hard enough, they could save plenty of the taxpayer's dinero, so then they wouldn't have to resort to closing hockey rinks and shutting down libraries on Sundays, which didn't work anyway. Ah these crazy councillors! What will they do next?

Anyway...what does all this teach us? C'mon, you know I'm going to say it – there ain't no such thing as a free lunch, baby!!

Comments

[heather (errantdreams)]

In Maryland we have similar problems on a state scale, as I understand it. Budget? What budget?

[Kerry]

If I remember the story correctly, wasn't the problem with Rob Ford not that he was spending too little money, but that he was spending his own money? Which sounds perfectly reasonable, perhaps, except that there are rules in place so that councillors don't get/spend money from dubious sources and so that councillors have equal access to resources. He was making a good point, but in sort of an obnoxious way.

[Patricia]

Oh yes, I agree. But obnoxious is what Ford is all about! And I don't even have a problem with him spending his own money – but from what I understand, he didn't have receipts for all his expenses, which is still expected as a councillor.

I do like that it motivated council to take a closer look at its own spending!