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“To get rid of the land transfer tax, it’s almost impossible,” said Mr. Palacio. “Without that, how on earth can we balance the budget? You have to find other efficiencies or cut services and that’s something I’m not prepared to do at all.”

Councillor Paul Ainslie says he hears “loud and clear” that residents want to reduce the tax, but the decision can’t be made in isolation.

“Ideally, I would love to cut it,” said Mr. Ainslie, but “it would depend on what we have to cut [to offset it].”

Mr. McDermott believes that if the city could hum along before the tax, it should be able to get along just fine without it. He proposes phasing it out over five years, and says it can be done without cutting programs. He suggested outsourcing as one way to save money.

“I’m saying that they need better fiscal management at city hall. There is a lot of waste at city hall. There are projects that are over budget, they are not on time. There are a lot of things they could cut back on,” he said. “Five per cent of Toronto taxpayers — property buyers — paid $350-million in the land transfer tax. What they got for that is absolutely nothing. They got no additional value for municipal services. It’s not fair,” he said. “I’m surprised it’s not more of an issue than it is. People are really upset about this tax.”

Shelley Carroll, who was budget chief under the David Miller administration that introduced the land transfer tax, said the city needed the tax to help pay for services downloaded after amalgamation and still needs it now. She jokes her role then makes her “the evil queen” to some, but maintains it helped staved off skyrocketing property tax hikes. She welcomed the search for more efficiencies, although guaranteed that as soon as money is freed up, residents would be clamouring to have it spent in other areas. “For every efficiency and every bit of waste they might find, we have a looming crisis in the TTC,” she said.

National Post

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