Toronto city staff should be thanked for getting the city's finances back on track as new budget numbers for 2011 are set to be released Monday, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford said in an email sent to all city staff Friday afternoon.
Reports suggest Toronto's 2011 year-end surplus is at least $138 million higher than anticipated, reaching $292 million. Detailed information is expected to be released on Monday.
"I want to take this opportunity to thank each of you for your extremely hard work and dedication to getting our City's finances back on track," Ford said in the email.
Though the email didn't provide any numbers, Ford said that the city's year-end financials will "make it crystal clear that your hard work has paid off to benefit all who live and do business in this great city."
Speaking to CTV Toronto Friday evening, Coun. Shelley Carroll said finding a larger-than-anticipated surplus at the end of the year is common as the city collects interest from investments, and as staff who don't spend their entire budget return a portion of it to the surplus pot.
"It's not unusual to see a surplus of this nature and it has been growing due to a number of budget adjustments, and those have been ongoing since 2007," Carroll said.
She added that the $774-million shortfall that Ford first floated during the budgeting process was exaggerated and led high emotions as councillors tried to cut and as community members tried to save their programs and services.
"The shortfall of $774 million was certainly over exaggerated because it didn't take into account these revenues that add to the surplus over the year," said Carroll.
By the end of budgeting process, councillors already knew that the surplus for 2011 was growing, Carroll said, and they made adjustments to some of their planned budget cuts.
Carroll said Ford's email thanking staff on Friday was warranted, but she also urged the mayor's office to "get ride of some of the rhetoric" when speaking about city finances in the future.
Coun. Josh Matlow also some ideas about where the budget surplus should go.
"Much of the surplus really should go towards retiring the city's debt load," he said. "That will free up operating funds for services."
