City Hall isn't the set of a Hollywood movie, but it may as well be these days the way Mayor Glen Murray has scripted fear and loathing into the general public. Murray would have us believe that many of the city services we enjoy will be obliterated unless new taxes are imposed. According to the Winnipeg Sun, his plan is to hold public consultations and "present a number of scenarios . . .here are the choices, you can see service cuts, or you can see us keep services the same or you can see more policing." In short, we are being held hostage - pay up or else

Public consultations are a good way to get people involved, but the problem is you have the usual suspects showing up and making presentations. Not to mention that the final decisions on taxes will be left to a group of politicians and bureaucrats. And we know which way they want taxes to go - UP! Besides who is going to attend a public meeting to talk about property taxes in the middle of summer when the only thing on people's minds is golfing and baking in the summer sun

At issue here, when all of the rhetoric is stripped away is this - Murray wants more taxing authority from the province, something voters are loathed to give him. We all know cities are creatures of the province and they have been stretched to the limit thanks to years of provincial and federal offloading, but this does not mean that we should give cities more taxing power. A recent survey released by the Canada West Foundation found that only 30% of Manitobans believe that cities should have more power, including the ability to impose new taxes.

Here comes the inevitable question - how do we fill the infrastructure gap Three simple words - Municipal Roadway Trust. Politicians across the country (except those in Manitoba) are endorsing the CTF's model of dedicated tax dollars to pay for things like road repair. Gasoline taxes are user fee applied to motorists. Adopting the CTF's Municipal Roadway Trust model would return more than $2 billion - each year - directly to municipal governments to help pay for local roadway maintenance and improvement. Murray is doing Winnipeggers a great disservice by not taking a serious look at this model of dedicated taxes. It has been said before - if the mayor spent as much time coming up with ways to trim spending as he does dreaming up new tax levies, Winnipeg could be the most competitive tax jurisdiction in the country.

Let's suppose for a moment that the province decides they are going to go down the road of giving the cities more taxing authority, then there must be a referendum on the issue. After all if the people that are paying the bills aren't given a direct say, then what is the point of this exercise If politicians want a leg to stand on, they should put the question to the people and let all taxpayers come to the debate with their best arguments - anything short of a referendum on the issue of higher taxes would be wholly undemocratic.

Until that happens, the fear and loathing will continue and the Mayor will be the star attraction.