Residents share wishlist for Toronto budget (Tamara Shephard article in Etobicoke Guardian, Jan. 10, 2013)

The headline and opening paragraphs in Tamara Shephard’s Jan. 10, 2013 article in The Etobicoke Guardian read as follows:

Residents share wishlist for Toronto budget

A south Etobicoke resident warned Wednesday night against a “Scrooge” Toronto budget that cuts social services.

Michael Craig organized the budget information meeting attended by approximately 60 area residents at The Assembly Hall. The meeting was sponsored by the Commitment to Community campaign, a project of Social Planning Toronto, of which Craig is its Ward 6 volunteer co-ordinator.

“I expected there would be people at the meeting, saying ‘lower my taxes’, but I didn’t get that,” Craig said, a relatively new area resident who worked for 30 years writing and producing videos for the non-profit sector. “I was very up front about preserving and enhancing social services as a goal and the meeting attracted 60 people who agreed.”

Meanwhile, Toronto’s executive committee went into its meeting Thursday to tackle city’s $9.4 billion budget with an unexpected $232 million surplus. The surplus comes from greater-than-expected savings and $52 million higher than expected Land Transfer Tax revenues.

Toronto arts organizations will get an additional $22.5 million in funding, with the city’s financial reserves topped up by $29.5 milllion. A further $14.2 million will cover wage increases for unionized workers, budget chief Mike Del Grande said.

[Click on link in opening sentence to read the article.]