Mayors suggest how to pay for transit
Posted March 19, 2012 2:30 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
BURNABY (NEWS1130) – Metro Vancouver mayors are going back to some old tax wells to try to fund transit in the short term and hope the province will consider using the provincial tax to fund the system in future years.
“The two [suggestions] that we put forward which could potentially replace the $30 million in property tax that will click in, I think, next year, if we don’t find an alternative, were the vehicle levy and, potentially, a regional carbon tax that would be specifically for public transportation,” says North Vancouver District Mayor Richard Walton, the chair of the Mayors’ Council on Regional Transportation.
The suggestions are among several motions the mayors have put in a letter sent to Transportation Minister Blair Lekstrom last week.
“There was strong support for these motions [amongst mayors,]” explains Walton. “They were crafted collectively and there’s a strong consensus between us that we need to find additional funding, both the short term and the long term.”
If the province rejects the ideas, people in Metro Vancouver can expect a $23 property tax increase next year, a move decried by some mayors.
“Neither of those are new ideas,” admits Walton. “The vehicle levy tax has been on the books for a long period of time. In fact, I think the mayors who were serving on the TransLink board, I think about eight years ago, actually were prepared to introduce that and the provincial government vetoed it.”
However, Walton says they have few options to make up the $30 million short-term funding gap.
In the long term, mayors suggest having the provincial carbon tax fund transit rather than be revenue neutral.
“What we’re saying to the province is, look, create a variety of different sources of funding so that between the provincial ministry [of transportation] and the mayors’ council and the TransLink board, we can actually work with the public and come up with a series of funding measures that are fair,” adds Walton.
“We’re looking forward very much to sitting down and talking with the minister, hopefully in April, about his views on these,” he says.
Walton says they hope the province acts on their short-term suggestions soon.
