The City of Toronto says it is planning to take the province to court to collect $71 million it says it is owed for various social programs.

City budget chief Shelley Carroll says Toronto's budget crisis has left them no choice but to try to get the money through the courts.

Years ago the former Mike Harris Conservatives downloaded a number of services onto the city, which left taxpayers to help pay for services such as welfare, affordable housing and child care through property tax increases.

Toronto is trying to approve its $7.8 billion operating budget later this month, and have proposed a property tax hike of 3.8 per cent -- nearly twice the rate of inflation.

Carroll said she met with members of the Liberal government on Wednesday, but was told they won't be handing over the $71 million.

The city's budget committee on Thursday voted to take $41 million out of an unidentified reserve account and get the other $30 million from an account designed to help pay for cost overruns for the already-approved subway extension to York University and Vaughan , the Toronto Star reported.

Some councillors said the $30 million could end up delaying completion of the subway by a year or more during the later stages of the project.

Mayor David Miller told reporters he was "extremely reluctant" to take another level of government to court, but feels his hands are tied.

Miller says the province hasn't been paying their 50 per cent of the costs of administering social programs, as the law states.

Ontario Finance Minister Greg Sorbara said Miller's request came as a surprise.

"The mayor did not come to see me once in this budget-making process to say 'Could you help out?'" Sorbara said on Friday.

"(I told Carroll) 'My job is pretty much like yours, I don't have a chequebook, I just can't write you out a cheque.'"

Sorbara said since the Liberals took office in 2003, the government has given Toronto hundreds of millions of dollars more in funding and taken back the costs of GO Transit.

The minister says he's not closing the door for more funding for Toronto before the fall provincial election, but says the city's actions are putting a strain on the relationship.

With a report from CTV's Paul Bliss