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Toronto’s financial mandarins are preparing a budget proposal that almost certainly will not meet embattled Mayor Rob Ford’s vow to hold next year’s property tax increase at 1.75%, his budget chief says.

Frank Di Giorgio remained cagey about what the figure will be, except that it likely will not include the 0.5% subway tax hike council approved earlier this year, and which Mayor Ford wanted folded in.

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tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Toronto budget to include higher tax increases than Mayor Ford promised before he lost most of his powers Back to video

He also shattered any illusions that the 2014 budget to be unveiled Monday, a preliminary document that must still navigate Toronto’s choppy political waters before council approval in January, would propose shaving the land transfer tax, another Ford promise.

There are certain demands that you have to meet

“There are certain demands that you have to meet and the numbers don’t lie. You have to fund those demands,” said Mr. Di Giorgio on Wednesday.

He seems prepared for Mayor Ford to cast a budget that misses his tax target as proof of what happens when he is not at the helm. Mr. Di Giorgio insists it will still be true to a fiscal conservative agenda and it isn’t evidence of a leftist coup at city hall, as some have suggested. “Not yet,” he added wryly. “Where we end up could be something else.”