It's one thing to not really have a champion for it, it's quite another to have a champion for the exact opposite.
Like all things it is way more complicated than just tacking on 2% to the sales tax and saying that this 2% will go to transit.
The province is already in deficit....that is with the the entire provincial portion of sales taxes going to general revenues to be used for government operations. If (as is likely) that extra 2% sales tax reduces spending to any degree (the consumer only has a finite amount of money to spend) then the general revenue will decline by that amount (simple example...say there is $2B of spending now and the province gets 8% for general revenue that is $160 million of revenue......if you raise the sales tax by 2% and that causes a 2% drop in sales {it may be more} then, sure, you have raised $39 million for your transit tax but you have also depleted the already short general revenue account by over $3 million).
The converse of this is why "the right" often tout reducing sales taxes because the increase in sales that occurs (in theory) offsets the percent reduction and there is virtually no impact on tax revenue and a positive impact on job growth.
In reality, all of these revenue tools have to be considered in the context of the general economy. Individually (and certainly on boards like this) you will not find much opposition to the idea of revenue tools dedicated to transit but if, say, you take $4B a year out of the Ontario economy via tolls/taxes/fees to go to transit...that is $4B that is not available for meals, other taxes, movies, coffees...etc.
Agreed...just stating an opinion...maybe could hvae 1% dedicated to transit, and 1% dedicated to general revenues...but again, issue becomes making sure transit portion is being used as such
It's one thing to not really have a champion for it, it's quite another to have a champion for the exact opposite.
You're saying "Toronto won't" when you mean "Rob Ford won't." (And "won't" isn't really the right word because Rob Ford may not get a choice in the matter.)Why should 905 residents pay more tolls and taxes if Toronto won't?
Show me where someone's proposed something that only residents will pay and not businesses.And why only residents and not businesses? If Toronto's business community thinks transit is so important, they should help pay for it too.
Show me where someone's proposed something that only residents will pay and not businesses.
The four measures TRBOT is putting forward for "serious consideration," which they believe can generate as much as $2 billion, include:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toron...-horwath-transit-gridlock-board-of-trade.html
- A regional sales tax.
- A $1 a day parking space levy.
- A 10 cents per litre regional fuel tax.
- High-occupancy toll lanes in which drivers of single occupancy vehicles would pay 30 cents a kilometre
CBC: Ontario NDP leader rejects Board of Trade transit proposal
Kinda stupid. No way 'corporate tax loopholes,' whatever that means, would generate 1.3b. Even if it did, that would be prorated over the entire province.
As one who has generally voted NDP, this populist nonsense is appalling. Andrea sounds like a left-wing version of Ford here, acting as if public services can be basically be provided for free (Ford said he'll end the "gravy train" and nothing meaningful would be cut, Horwath says nobody will have to pay for it because we'll just find some "loopholes" somewhere.)
If we want to deal with congestion and make massive investments in transit, we'll have to pay for it.