Ranting at the Fat-Cat politicians and their cabal - with Breaking News

(Breaking news below)

Linda Leatherdale is back at it again today - ranting at all levels of government, and starting with His Blondness (Pols tighten our belts, but never their own):

...Barely a moment passed after the piggies at the tax trough gave a thunderous ovation to Mayor David Miller winning his new municipal land transfer tax and vehicle registration tax -- then we learned firefighters are getting a sweet pay raise...

..But it's blatantly obvious a powerful union lobby, who abandoned Bob Rae's NDP after he ushered in Rae Days, is now backing the tax-happy Dalton McGuinty Liberals at Queen's Park and the tax-happy Miller at City Hall...

...Miller cries City Hall is flat broke, our infrastructure is crumbling and if over-taxed taxpayers don't cough up more money, it'll go bankrupt.

So, this powerful lobby helped Miller win the vote for his tax grab, which will line the city's coffers by up to $300 million a year over a full year. And still Miller says it's not enough money.

Why then, if the city's so broke, are we giving firefighters a 9.66% raise over the next three years -- which is above the rate of inflation? Now, Toronto's police are at the table. For the record, also Toronto's finest...

Did you catch that??? A 9.66% raise over the next three years!!! Do you know of anyone else other than politicians that get that kind of increase?

This is only the beginning folks.

You know, it's strange how many times I saw signs from the firefighters union supporting Dalton during the election. Now there are rumours that the province might take over the TTC.

Miller and Dalton must have had some kind of sweet deal cooked up between them.


Yes, and then there's dear Dalton:

Hypocrisy also lives at Queen's Park. McGuinty lied about "no new taxes," then blamed a Tory deficit for one of the biggest tax grabs ever, the $10-billion health levy. Now, rumours swirl he's planning to hike the PST by 2%, with 1% going to hard-pressed municipalities and 1% to cash-strapped transit, then harmonize the PST with the hated GST. If true, we'll now be paying a provincial sales tax on services, like home buying closing costs, legal fees, court costs, etc.

And McGuinty will tell us he didn't raise taxes. That's because Ottawa is cutting the GST by 2%.

Yup. Watch for it. The GST will go down and Dalton will raise the PST. No tax hike right? It's a wash.

It's enough to drive a person to drink - if you could afford the taxes and mark-up. Better not anyway, because you don't want to be needing a doctor - if you could find one.

* * * *

BREAKING NEWS: Sorbara Quits Cabinet!!!

More at CTV, and Freedom is my Nationality.

CBC speculates on possible replacements.

Halls of Macadamia - Sorbara Surprise.

...when first we practise to deceive.

As if living in Toronto wasn't expensive enough, Toronto taxpayers now find themselves being forced to fund TTC employee health premiums due to a combination of Premier McGuinty originally trying to sell the health tax as a premium, and the 1972 guarantee obtained by the union the transit authority would pay 100% of OHIP "contributions."

Both TTC Chairman Adam Giambrone and Local 113 President Bob Kinnear said that:

"...had the McGuinty government not initially tried to sell the new health levy as a "premium" rather than a tax, the union might not have won its case."

"That really hurt the TTC," Mr. Giambrone said. "If the government had been clear that this was a tax, we would likely not be in the same position."

On the other hand, I don't have a whole lot of sympathy for a city that just keeps re-electing politicians and parties that use the public purse as their own personal lottery.