One of the more puzzling features of the local political season this year is the constantly repeated refrain that the Miller years were an unmitigated disaster for Toronto.

Puzzling, because there is little or no relationship between the rhetoric of David Miller’s critics and the reality of his two terms as Toronto’s mayor.

The focal point of the charge against the Miller years is financial, so let’s look first at the financial facts.

In 2003, the year before Miller was elected, the City of Toronto spent $109 million more than it raised. And the deficit would have been even higher had the city not transferred $615 million — more than 9 per cent of its budget — from non-capital reserves. In 2008, the city ran a surplus of $81 million, and depended on transfers from reserves for only 2 per cent of its budget.

The critics say Toronto’s taxes are too high; Toronto’s residential taxes are the lowest in the GTA.

They say Toronto’s expenditures are out of control; Toronto’s expenditures have increased at a lower rate since 2003 than have local expenditures in the rest of the province.

Yes, spending is up, because services were improved after a decade of neglect. But the city raised the revenue it needed to pay for them. Current and wannabe federal and provincial politicians taking pot shots at the city’s finances might reflect on that fact, and on the fact that in the teeth of the recession Toronto has balanced its budget every year, before they open their mouths.

The city’s finances are in such poor shape that the 2011 fiscal plan of every one of the candidates for mayor starts with a description of what they’d do with the surplus expected at the end of 2010.

The critics seem to forget what civic Toronto was like in 2003. Miller’s campaign symbol wasn’t a broom for nothing. Toronto’s streets were dirty. And so was its politics.

Years of deferred maintenance had made their mark, and when the streets got dirty, they stayed that way because there weren’t enough people to clean them.

On the political front, corruption was the word of the day; and not the pretend corruption that regularly gets thrown around in the overheated shouting matches that pass for debate this year. The real kind, with public inquiries and findings of fault and police investigations.

In 2003, waterfront revitalization was an endless series of empty photo ops. Today there’s a lot happening on the waterfront, from the new Corus Entertainment building to a spectacular new park. The eastern end of the Gardiner Expressway has been cleaned up. The Don Lands, a political football since the Peterson years, are humming with activity.

The Distillery District, launched in 2003, has emerged as a cultural gem. Yonge and Dundas Square has been transformed from an ugly duckling into a vibrant hub in the downtown.

After years of fruitless hand-wringing about the state of the social housing Toronto inherited in the Harris government’s download, spectacular redevelopment projects are under way at Regent Park and well into the planning stages at Lawrence Heights.

After decades of denial about troubled communities in Toronto’s inner suburbs, a concerted focus on those vulnerable neighbourhoods, in partnership with the United Way and other agencies, is beginning to pay off.

After decades of neglect, we are finally investing in Toronto’s vital public infrastructure. Construction delays may drive everybody crazy today, but the renewal is long overdue, and it will pay off for decades into the future.

We’re getting ready to welcome the Americas to our city, in the 2015 Pan American Games.

Toronto hadn’t had a coherent plan for improving public transit in the city since the mid-1970s. Transit City isn’t just a plan; it is a plan with a funding commitment from the provincial government that’s already under way.

Ten years ago, Toronto was a laughing stock as the city that had to call in the army to get rid of a snowfall. Today, the city is recognized around the world as a leader in the effort to address the issues of air and water pollution and global warming. Once again, we are learning from the world; once again, the world is coming to us to learn.

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Of course, the city’s not perfect. In the past seven years, we could have done more and been more.

But there’s no question that Toronto under Miller’s leadership passes the Ronald Reagan test — it’s a much better place than it was when he was elected.

Hugh Mackenzie is a Toronto-based economist.