Former budget chief Mike Del Grande was taken aback, to put it mildly, when the city manager and his budget brains came up with their propaganda piece last Monday in which they tried to dispel Rob Ford’s claims he’s saved taxpayers $1.1-billion during the past four years.Del Grande says CFO Rob Rossini actually confirmed that figure to him — and had even recently conceded the $1.1-billion included the $200-million “put back in taxpayers’ pockets” when Toronto council cancelled the Personal Vehicle Tax during Ford’s first six months in office.......it’s called covering one’s butt should NDPer Olivia Chow win the mayoral race in October. Problem is, they didn’t cover the full picture, choosing not to take Miller’s entire seven years of fiscal mismanagement into consideration. When asked why, Rossini said there were only asked for Miller’s last four years — a request that apparently came from three (unnamed) councillors, one formal public complaint to Pennachetti and “numerous” media outlets.He insisted they weren’t doing anything “disingenuous.”In fact, during Miller’s seven years of fiscal mismanagement, he increased operating budget spending by 44%, the capital budget by another 250%. “Spending shot through the roof,” Del Grande said.Miller constantly went cap in hand to the feds and the province for bailouts to balance the books, raided the city’s reserve funds down to near depletion and in 2005, used $60-million from the sale of hydro poles to help close the gap.
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