Toronto has a massive operating surplus. Again.

In what feels like incredibly familiar news, the city’s budget committee says the city has a $70.3-million operating surplus for the first three months of 2012, which should reach $90 million by the end of the year. The rest of the story runs about as we’ve come to expect when surpluses are announced: a good chunk (roughly $17 million) of the money is from the city’s land-transfer tax; budget chief Mike Del Grande says Toronto shouldn’t spend much of it and could stand to reduce taxes; a left-leaner (in this case, Paula Fletcher) suggests that the numbers prove many of the Ford administration’s service cuts were unnecessary. [Globe and Mail]