Editing Rob Ford (section)

====2001 municipal budget====
It was during the 2001 budget deliberations that Ford earned a reputation for passionate speeches. The [[Municipal government of Toronto|City of Toronto]] was facing a several hundred million dollar budget shortfall, enough to require a 32% tax increase after the [[Government of Ontario]] shifted the delivery of services from itself to Toronto, who would have to then pay for them. Toronto Mayor [[Mel Lastman]] was pleading with other governments for financial assistance. According to Don Wanagas, the ''[[National Post]]'' City Hall columnist, the other councillors began to dread when Ford rose to speak. "I have to give my head a shake because some of the rhetoric that comes out of the mouths of some of these councillors boggles my mind, I swear.{{nbsp}}... Get the government out of our backyards. It's ridiculous. Government red tape here. Bureaucratic here. It's nonsense having all this government. And it's nonsense. It's so ridiculous. If you don't like what the province is doing, there's going to be an election in June of '03 – before our election, by the way."<ref name="gm-wanagas-2001-03-10">{{cite news |newspaper=National Post|url=https://nationalpost.com/toronto/don-wanagas-the-odd-rantings-of-young-rob-ford|title=The odd rantings of young Rob Ford|date=March 10, 2001|page=F2|last=Wanagas|first=Don}}</ref> Councillor [[Anne Johnston]] proposed giving Ford a "neo-con award of the day", while Councillor [[Joe Pantalone]] advised Ford to take [[Prozac]].<ref name="gm-wanagas-2001-03-10"/> Ford argued against spending money on the suicide prevention barrier on the [[Prince Edward Viaduct]], and spending it instead on rounding up child molesters "who are the main cause of people jumping off bridges".<ref name="gm-wanagas-2001-03-10"/>

Ford proposed a cut to each councillor's $200,000 office budget, money for travel to conferences, ending city limousine usage and club memberships. According to Ford, "if we wiped out the perks for council members, we'd save $100 million easy."<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=The Globe and Mail|location=Toronto|title=Council considers service hit list|date=February 1, 2001|page=A16|last=Abbate|first=Gay}}</ref> Ford was one of only four councillors who voted against a 5% increase in property taxes for 2001.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=The Globe and Mail|location=Toronto|title=Budget contains 5% tax hike|date=May 2, 2001|last=Rusk|first=James|page=A16}}</ref> Ford made a point of not using his allotted city budget for his office expenses, paying for the expenses from his salary. He claimed $10 for his first year, and $4 for his second year. In Ford's opinion, "all this office budget stuff is self-promotion to benefit yourself. Why should the taxpayers have to pay for it? It boggles my mind."<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=The Globe and Mail|location=Toronto|url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/councillors-office-costs-vary-widely/article1011594/|title=Councillors' office costs vary widely|last=Lewington|first=Jennifer|date=March 15, 2003|page=A18}}</ref>