Toronto city councillors said an emphatic 'no' to a number of proposed citizen taxes to help fund public transit in Toronto Thursday, much to the delight of the city’s mayor.

“I feel fantastic," said Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, who was seen high-fiving supporters at city hall Thursday afternoon. “We fended off the wolves today. I couldn’t be happier.”

Councillors were voting on a number of revenue tools that had been proposed by Metrolinx as a way to help pay for a $50-billion transit expansion plan for the Greater Toronto Area dubbed the “Big Move.”

After an extended debate that began a day before, city council finally began voting on the proposals late Thursday afternoon.

A staff report tabled last month called on council to immediately voice its support for four of the proposed tools, including development charges and a dedicated sales tax, fuel tax and parking space levy.

The fuel tax and parking levy were both rejected by councillors.

The dedicated sales tax and development charges - neither of which would be administered by the city – remained on the table, but were not endorsed.

The report said that city staff would also support three of the other proposed tools - high-occupancy toll lanes, highway tolls and a dedicated vehicle registration tax - upon completion of the first phase of the project.

All three were rejected during voting.

The staff report dismissed a congestion levy, a transit fare increase, a utility bill levy and an employer payroll tax or an income tax as a means to fund transit.

Speaking with CP24 Thursday evening, Coun. Doug Ford echoed his brother’s sentiments on Thursday’s voting.

“It was a great, great victory for the people of Toronto,” he said.

Other councillors, however, had a much different opinion.

“We are not going to build a modern city with modern transit if we don’t say we’re prepared to look at ways to fund it,” Coun. Janet Davis said. “I think it was a very sad day for the people of Toronto.”

In what she described as a “dog’s breakfast” of a council meeting, Coun. Jaye Robinson said the decisions reached Thursday were important in shaping the future of how the city pays for transit.

“[Transit]’s such an important topic to Toronto - how we get transit built in our city, because it’s lacking and we need to address it,” she said.

Mayor Rob Ford’s executive committee had originally scheduled the debate on the revenue tools for May 28, but on Tuesday council voted 27-13 in favour of adding the item to the agenda for its May 7-8 meeting.

The city will now be able to provide its input to Metrolinx ahead of a presentation to the province on May 27.

Mayor Rob Ford has spoken out against any increase in taxes in order to fund transit expansion in the past, suggesting that the province must find efficiencies in its budget in order to cover the cost.