nfitz, Toronto is bankrupt... it just hasn't hit the wall yet. I think saying I'm lying by calling it bankrupt is a bit mellow dramatic, and I'm most confident I'll be proven right over time. There is a discernible pattern to what is happening to this city, and it has happened elsewhere in other organizations. To turn a blind eye to the obvious does not make it go away. The problem is not a lack of funds, it's a lack of control. The only way the city can continue to operate is by raising taxes, adding new fees, clutching, grasping at every source of revenue. That the city is bankrupt is not correct in the truest sense is a moot point... kinda like saying GM was bankrupt by the late 1990's - it wasn't technically, but they were hiding it by taking on more debt and operating at a loss. Look at them now.
The recent leadership has presided over a disaster, which like most financial collapses, will not manifest itself until long after those most responsible have moved on. Like GM and the US banks that failed, instead of addressing the fundamental problems in the organization, they ignore them because it is easier (politically) to try and bury them or blame others. Spending is out of control at the city and it is not getting better. They solution, it seems, it to throw yet more money at the problem through raising and adding new taxes and adding new user fees, blame the Province, blame the Fed's, blame the economy. This is safer politically than addressing the problem. Sooner or later, the axe will have to fall and the longer it's drawn out, the worse it will have to be. By not acting while they can to control the city's spending on their own terms, they are going to let if fester until backed into a corner and the solution will be forced on them - outside powers will call the shots and then we'll really be up the creek. And they (city hall) will act like there was nothing anyone could have done to stop it.
We are living beyond our means, and that never, ever has a happy ending.
FWIW, I am in the process of preping my condo for sale and I'll be taking myself, my respectable income, and my taxes to the GTA. The sad part is that I will have to continue to support this mess through my taxes.
City of Toronto strategy for dealing with their spending crisis:
http://atthebirds.gsbreporter.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/man-with-head-in-sand.gif
PS, when you register your vehicle to a business in TO or an address outside of TO, you avoid the Miller tax. Not illegal.