Year: 1933
Summary: Urges citizens to contact municipal representatives about the issue of civic expenditure.
Summary: Highlights Toronto's strong credit position, and urges citizens to call upon their representatives to reduce the tax burden, so that business and industry can continue to grow.
Summary: Analysis of taxation figures from 1927-1932.
Summary: Provides estimates of annual revenues and expenditures and their equivalent in mills.
Summary: Povides a tabulated comparison of annual estimated expenditure from 1927-1933.
Summary: Tabulated comparison of estimated civic expenditures from 1928-1933, analyzed according to objects of expenditure, and comments.
Summary: An open letter to the mayor, the board of control, and city aldermen, highlighting the fact that expenditures appear to be falling behind revenues at a growing pace.
Summary: Argues that civic expenditure should be reduced, to accommodate the effects of the Great Depression on citizen's ability to pay taxes.
Summary: Outlines the effects of the Great Depression on the citizen's ability to pay taxes and what should be done with the tax code in order to address this problem.
Summary: Outlines questions that voters may put to candidates before the elections: specifically, with the budget in deficit, should it be balanced by cutting spending or should another approach be taken.
Year: 1934
Summary: Argues that the economic tides appear to be turning, but cautions that the city cannot already return to its previous expenditure levels due to lack of fiscal stability after the years of depression.
Summary: Outlines the city's deficits and credit rating coming out of the depression. Suggests that the city should lower the tax rate in order to "get off the backs" of taxpayers and businesses. Suggests cutting the wages of city workers and other ways of finding efficiencies.
Summary: Outlines the costs of welfare relief and raises the question of whether or not welfare relief should be continued after the depression ends. The advantages and disadvantages of several different relief systems are discussed.
Summary: Argues that city workers' salaries can be reduced in light of the increase on purchasing power with the Great Depression
Summary: An open letter to the citizens and taxpayers of Toronto, outlining the fact that large deficits in light of the Great Depression are not presented to their full extent. Highlights some major issues in the budget including some major upcoming capital expenditures.
Summary: Outlines what expenses on unemployment are and who should be addressing the issue. Argues that municipalities are not equipped to deal with the relief of unemployment - but that chronic relief, like public health, is a municipal issue.
Summary: Highlghts the issue of growing deficits in the Great Depression, and argues this issue is not being fully presented to the public.
Summary: Need for accountability and more transparency in reporting on deficits.
Summary: Poses queries as to the effects of the Depression on the city accounts and the use of deficits to cover for lost tax revenue.
Summary: The budgetary troubles in light of the Depression and the need for transparency regarding the working conditions of the civic service.
Summary: Argues that the reduction in the number of citizens able to pay taxes (due to the Depression) requires close scrutiny of the city services. Reforms to improve efficiency are suggested.
Year: 1935
Summary: Highlights the need for balancing the budget and for reducing tax burden in light of Depression.
Summary: This Open Letter suggests that there are only two ways to balance the budget: increasing revenue or cutting spending.
Summary: This Open Letter objects to raising tax rate and calls for finding other ways to reduce expenditure.
Summary: Provides budget and expenditure figures for the fiscal year 1935. Argues that the biggest challenge pointed out in the budget is current unemployment expenditure and debt on past unemployment expenditure.
Summary: Provides budget and expenditure figures for the fiscal year 1935, and includes money spent on direct unemployment relief and debt charges. Advocates against tax increases, and calls for debts incurred by the city abbatoir to be examined.
Summary: Highlights the fact that high direct unemployment relief payments are risking Toronto's good credit record. Suggests that those receiving unemployment relief be investigated or required to re-register, in order to determine that all those receiving relief are in fact eligible for it.
Summary: Argues that the new budget gives more detailed information than in the past about salaries and wages but could still give the people even more detailed an account of how the budget is managed.
Summary: Outlines the structure of the city corporation. Highlights the need for more accountability and better efficiency and the important of more public engagement in the city's affairs.
Summary: Details the way in which taxpayer money is spent and the need for more responsible use thereof. Argues that inefficient use of taypayer funds is in effect a theft, and that politicians should be more careful, and appoint employees and city workers based on merit, not patronage.