TORONTO

Mayor Rob Ford may not be king of the castle anymore so he’s going to be a tax-fighting rascal when it comes to the 2014 budget.

In a speech to a business crowd at Casa Loma Thursday night, Ford set the stage for a fight over the budget and its proposed tax hike with his former allies and the rest of council.

Ford — who lost any power to steer the budget process in Monday’s council vote — said he wants to see a 1.75% tax hike in the 2014 budget. The embattled mayor wants that tax hike to include a 0.5% tax hike to start financing the Scarborough subway and a 10% cut of the land transfer tax.

“There is no reason why we can’t achieve it,” Ford said. “But folks, let me be frank with you, unfortunately I don’t believe that is going to happen. They’re already talking, as of an hour ago, that taxes are going to 2.5%.

“This is not the way I ran the government and I will not be supporting a 2.5% tax increase when I know we could achieve a 1.75% tax increase to keep this city as great as it ever has been.”

The mayor’s hardline stance on the budget comes a day after budget chief Frank Di Giorgio met with him to warn him that limiting the tax hike to 1.75% was almost impossible.

“I was there basically to give him a head’s up on how the numbers were shaping up and to indicate to him, in my view, it was going to be very difficult to meet the 1.75% target that we originally set at the beginning of the year,” Di Giorgio said earlier in the day. “His reaction was not good. To be brutally honest I think his feeling is the moment he was pushed aside, the gravy train got back in action.

“I don’t believe it to be true, I’m still committed to trying to do the best I can to meet his fiscal agenda.”

Di Giorgio said he expected the budget recommended by city staff to include a tax increase above 2% — not including the 0.5% tax hike to start to fund the Scarborough subway.

He added that a 1.75% tax hike would require slashing “numerous millions” from the budget.

The York South-Weston (Ward 12) councillor described himself as a “conciliator” or “adjudicator” between Ford and Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly on Thursday as they prepared for Monday’s budget launch.

“It would be fair to say that (Ford is) a little bit upset,” Di Giorgio said. “The mayor’s a fighter, he’s looking forward to battles in the future.”

Councillor Ana Bailao said there was “almost” no chance of a 1.75% tax hike and “no way” of cutting the land transfer tax.

Bailao predicted the budget process will be rough given the last council meeting debate where councillors voted to strip Ford of his powers.

“If it is going to be anything like the end of the last council meeting, the budget process and any future council meetings will be very tumultuous,” she said.

Councillor Paula Fletcher argued “the mayor’s gravy train is actually the Scarborough subway train.

“That’s the billion dollars extra that we’re going to have to recover from taxpayers in the city of Toronto,” Fletcher told the Toronto Sun.

“The mayor might mislead Toronto residents about this budget, the mayor unfortunately has been misleading Toronto residents about a number of things.”