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Originally Posted by McC
- there's only one taxpayer,
- none of this is real money, and going $2 deeper into debt because it's fairer than going $1 deeper into debt is a pretty poor way to run an operation;
- spending less on Toronto would be "sparing more";
- no money is being spent on Toronto yet anyway (and most won't be spent anytime soon either if they don't get their act together)...
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If we're going to use the old "there's only one taxpayer" truism, then I'm going to have to qualify it. While there's only one provincial taxpayer, there's two different municipal ratepayers, one in Toronto and one in Ottawa. Toronto ratepayers are getting a break that Ottawa ones are not, as $900 million of our plan is being funded by property taxes and $0 of theirs is. Furthermore, Ottawa gets no provincial money for transit operational costs, which Toronto does get. No wonder our fares are higher.
The "one" provincial taxpayer is helping his buddy the Toronto ratepayer, while giving the proverbial finger to his pals the Ottawa ratepayer and transit fare payor. That's a bad friend, and an unequitable situation.
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we can go on like this, and we can apply this logic to all levels of government. If the feds are spending too many deficit-dollars on F-35s, why not also spend more deficit-dollars on nuclear submarines? my goodness, they're shortchanging the RCN! but where does it stop? there is no tax rate physically possible that could finance a government run like you're suggesting.
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Ummm... re-read the thread. I haven't suggested a thing, simply pointed out an unfair and inequitable situation. If those aren't things government should address (just to make this clear, I am not suggesting that they must address them in all cases by throwing money at them) then I don't see why we ought to have government; anarchy would work just as well as a government that makes decisions that are not based upon any sort of principle and has no moral compass.