Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone said if he is elected mayor, his 2011 budget will maintain services but also hike overall taxes by about the rate of inflation.

"It is a city-building budget that is fiscally responsible," the candidate told a Thursday news conference.

Residential property taxes would rise by 2.5 per cent in Pantalone's proposed 2011 budget, although seniors would get a tax freeze. He would "phase out" the "regressive vehicle registration tax."

The budget would not require a cash injection from the provincial government, said Pantalone, who is running a distant third in the latest public opinion poll.

Pantalone had been calling for Queen's Park to provide about $250 million in TTC operating funding, as had outgoing Mayor David Miller in the spring. Premier Dalton McGuinty had been cool to the idea at the time.

Pantalone said such a deal can wait until 2012, but added that Toronto will need more provincial money in the longer term to maintain transit system service levels.

He called for a Toronto-Ontario summit in 2011 to discuss the funding of transit in the coming years. "The biggest issue that Toronto has had is how we deal with public transit," he said. "If we don't know what the province is going to do, we can't really come to terms with our budget."

The next provincial election is set for October 2011. Pantalone said he would also meet with the leaders of the non-governing parties to see how they might deal with Toronto's transit funding woes.

Former deputy premier George Smitherman has said he would ask the province to contribute $100 million towards the TTC's operating budget.

Coun. Rob Ford, who is essentially tied in popular support with Smitherman, has promised cuts in both spending and certain fees without any reduction in city services.

Here is a broad sketch of Pantalone's fiscal plan:

  • the starting pressure on the 2011 budget is $503 million
  • his promises would mean $22 million in new spending
  • $16 million in revenue would be lost
  • the 2010 surplus would be $180 million
  • service efficiencies would save $85 million
  • land sales and revenue from building would boost revenues by $75 million
  • property tax hikes would add another $55 million

"Those who are arguing there should be service cuts are not building the city," Pantalone said, adding his was the "city-building vision."

As to his two main opponents, "they say we can't afford to be the city that we are. I disagree," he said.

Smitherman was quick to issue a news release slamming Pantalone's proposal.

"This is the same old, David Miller financial plan that got us into the mess we're in. Joe is hinging his plan on an additional quarter of a billion dollars from Queen's Park - still ignoring the $160 million city hall already receives," he said.

"His approach does nothing to solve the annual cycle of projecting Toronto as broke and powerless. It's that kind of defeatist, can't do attitude that I'm running against. It is just more of the same."

The Ford campaign did not issue a news release.

It did issue a statement saying Ford welcomed the endorsement of Coun. John Parker (Ward 26, Don Valley West), a member of the Responsible Government Group of fiscally-conservative councillors.