Every night before they go to bed, Mayor John Tory and members of Toronto council should say a little prayer for the municipal land transfer tax.

The tax — an extra municipal fee charged to the buyer on real estate transactions in Toronto — deserves an enormous amount of credit for keeping the city financially solvent over the last decade. It’s not a stretch to say it has been city hall’s salvation. 

Even as the mayor and council have struggled to find enough revenue to fund local services like transit and homeless shelters, the LTT has been a straight-up cash bonanza. When the tax was introduced in 2009 by former mayor David Miller, the city estimated it could bring in about $150M a year.