Recreation facilities, libraries, local roadways, water infrastructure, transit operations, and countless other items. In some shape or form, every municipality has to maintain these items, and somebody’s got to pay the price tag. More often than not, it’s the municipal taxpayers. And with the municipal election campaign in full swing, mayoral candidates have been making a wide range of spending promises, arguing that their gameplan to utilize taxpayers’ money is the right approach to take. So how exactly do today’s cities pay for things? How should voters view these spending promises when they head to the ballot box? CFRA’s Andrew Pinsent gets an explainer from Enid Slack, the Director of the Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance at the University of Toronto. She explores how municipal finances work and outlines what levers the city possesses.