At one point, this blog recommended adding a per-parking-instance of a parking surcharge. This would only apply to paid parking lots, not free on-street or part-of-enterprise parking.

As much as four hundred million dollars a year could come from a one dollar surcharge.

The brilliant pundits who decide everything by making assumptions to guarantee failure said, it would be too difficult to enforce for on-street parking. Therefore, don’t leave that alone, instead drop the entire idea.

Now our Mayor, John Tory, proposes to (possibly) sell the Toronto Parking Authority. This to help pay for SmartTrack (whatever that means now, after so many shrinking changes.)

Selling an asset usually means that the buyer is getting something. Unless there’s a strong reason to stop running something that makes money, why sell it for a one-time cash-out?

And, do any of you believe that a privately owned ‘parking authority’ won’t increase parking charges?

So, here’s one case of Tory Sale: rather than impose a tax or surcharge, sell an asset and let its purchaser do the dirty work of raising more money. But not for the city, for themselves.

The same mayor who cannot bring himself to raise property taxes is considering selling Toronto Hydro. Again, giving up a good business to some person or thing (corporation) that will raise rates.

But that won’t be seen as a tax hike. It will be the big bad private owners’ fault when rates rise, ‘out of control’ of our mayor and his council.

This proposal is another ‘Tory Sale’ where an asset is given up to make it look like there’s no cost increase to citizens, when in fact there is a cost increase. It’s just not seen as a tax.

And of course once the one-time cash sale money has been spent, the earning power of the asset is still gone – gone forever.

That’s what I call a Tory Sale. I think we are being sold out.