Mayor Rob Ford’s administration has found almost $7 million to hire firefighters and paramedics, retain premium leaf pickup in the suburbs and boost student nutrition and adult recreation programs.

The money will come from new tax revenues due to the building boom, which in late November had been estimated to be $27 million but Thursday was updated to $33 million.

And Ford’s executive committee approved a plan to allocate $6 million of billboard taxes to increase arts and culture funding in 2013.

“We’re working as a team today,” Ford told reporters after the committee approved the $9.4 billion operating budget, which goes to city council next week for final signoff.

“We’re giving almost a little bit to everybody. I’ll be shocked if council doesn’t support that.”

Ford himself moved the motion to:

• Hire 15 fire prevention officers and 20 firefighters ($3 million)

• Hire 40 paramedics ($2.8 million)

• Reinstate curbside leaf collection in Etobicoke and Scarborough, annual cost $510,000.

• Add $200,000 for school nutrition programs, $200,000 to boost library collections, and $212,000 to stop charging adults at priority recreation centres.

It was a far cry from 12 months ago, when council rebelled at Ford’s austerity program, voting to use $19 million of prior-year surplus money to fund items the mayor had wanted to cut.

Councillor Doug Holyday, glad to see leaf pick-up reinstated for his constituents, said he thinks the package will enjoy council’s support.

“This moves quite a bit from what the budget committee originally did — to try and broaden the appeal. Hopefully it will. You’re never going to satisfy everybody but I hope we can get a majority.”

Councillor Josh Colle, who was instrumental in restoring the funding a year ago, answered “Maybe” when asked if Ford has learned to compromise.

“I think it’s a really positive step and I give the mayor credit for listening,” Colle said. “It’s good to see. I think the important thing is they recognize these are areas that need to be either maintained or expanded.”

Councillor Gord Perks, a staunch Ford critic on budget matters, said the package doesn’t go far enough.

“These changes are absolutely not enough,” Perks said. “This is still a city where the number of homeless people is going up, where the wait list for housing is going up, where the quality of public transit service is declining.

“There’s a lot of work left to be done if we want to build a great city we can be proud of.”

Ford’s move to boost the fire department is geared to help maintain the city’s rating for commercial properties, currently at class 3 and in danger of slipping to 4 on a 1 to 5 scale.

If ratings slip, commercial property owners could be hit with higher insurance premiums.

The Fire Underwriters Survey draft report for 2012 arrived Tuesday, espressing concerns about protections for commercial and high-risk occupancies, said Fire Chief Jim Sales.

Sales told reporters he has asked the survey authors for a 12-month extension to allow time to beef up resources.

“I’m confident these measures will maintain the city’s commercial property rating at a class 3,” Sales said, adding previously announced plans to close a station and remove a truck from four other stations will still happen.

Sales said residential properties in Toronto have a class 1 rating, and that is not in danger.

The firefighters union has been campaigning hard against permanently parking five of the department’s 128 trucks.

“It’s extremely disappointing,” said Ed Kennedy, president of the Toronto Professional Fire Fighters’ Association. “They’re doing a disservice to the citizens of Toronto. They’re playing with lives here.”

The arts community, meanwhile, was delighted that the city is willing to funnel billboard taxes into arts and culture, starting with $6 million in 2013.

“This is truly an historic moment for the arts,” said Claire Hopkinson, executive director of the Toronto Arts Council, which distributes city grants to artists.

“There is a demonstrated need to fund more artists outside the downtown core, to acknowledge the incredible energy and creativity of the young people in our city and to make more programs available to everybody,” Hopkinson said.

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Councillor Janet Davis noted the city posted a larger-than-expected 2012 surplus, making an extra $25 million available.

However, Ford was adamant that the extra money be set aside for future capital costs and not be spent in the 2013 operating budget.

“I’m not going to touch the surplus. I said that and I mean it,” Ford told reporters.

What to do with the surplus sparked a heated exchange earlier in the day, leading to Councillor Shelley Carroll storming out of the committee room after being criticized by Mike Del Grande, the budget chair.

When Carroll and others started asking about the extra $25 million, Del Grande voiced a concern they want to grab some of it to fund new items in the 2013 operating budget.

“There is a belief, just on the surplus, that somehow we can use that money because it’s now more than what we thought, to spend in the following year,” Del Grande, an accountant, told finance staff.

“In terms of accounting, in terms of the principle of kiting, could you please address that?”

Before staff could respond, Carroll objected to the reference to “kiting,” a form of fraud. She told Mayor Ford she felt she was being accused of doing something illegal.

Ford said Del Grande hadn’t accused her of kiting, and asked her to stop interrupting. She left the room and returned to distribute a definition of the illegal practice of cheque kiting.

“To any banker in this city, the word kiting is illegal in any book,” Carroll told reporters, saying she was offended by Del Grande’s remarks. “It is highly inappropriate to throw words around like that.”

The city’s $9.4 billion operating budget for 2013 goes to city council next week for final approval.

The Ford administration is backing a 2 per cent residential property tax hike, down from a 2.5 per cent increase in 2012.

A tax shift due to property reassessment means that residential properties will see an additional 0.51 per cent increase, while apartment and commercial buildings see a slight decrease.

The overall 2.51 per cent increase means a typical home assessed at $474,368 will pay $2,532 for municipal services, up by $62.08. The figures exclude education taxes, which have yet to be set.

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What is ‘kiting’?

The definition supplied by Councillor Shelley Carroll:

“Kiting, or ‘floating,’ is a banking term that refers to the illegal practice of drawing and depositing two cheques at two separate banks in hopes of taking advantage of the time it takes for the cheques to clear.”