First it was the Federal Budget, which did little to include the biggest city in Canada.

Then it was the Provincial Budget, which made no mention of Toronto at all.

Now its the city's turn to unveil what it plans to do with its estimated $7.6 Billion-plus operating budget. The obvious question, at this point, is "will this budget do anything for us?"

Let's find out what's on deck, shall we?

Part of the city's budget, the capital spending portion, was already approved at council March 7th. The plan oddly sees areas such as TTC funding and Health and Safety actually loose funding over the next four years. Overall, it seems funding from taxes and other levels of government are set to fall by over $200 Million.

The TTC portion can be explained by the fact that a lot of purchasing will be going on in the next two years.

But as for the actual budget, it'll be a wait and see game. While the budget is tentatively set to be revealed at some point today, the mayor's office has been playing this one very close to the vest. Under the new City Act, the mayor has been able to work primarily with a private committee to create the new budget.

Rumours state that the budget will include a $170M shortfall - similar to last year. It is expected the province will provide the top up. Look for highlights after the budget is reviewed (Wednesday) by council.

(photo: TerraS)