VANCOUVER – There is no social licence for increasing taxes for TransLink following last year’s strong No TransLink Tax vote and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) is calling on TransLink mayors to forget about a new tax and instead earmark 0.25 per cent of their city halls’ future revenue growth to fund their plan.

“The TransLink mayors, with the support of the NDP, are rushing to bring in another tax on cash-strapped Lower Mainlanders,” said Jordan Bateman, the CTF B.C. Director who led the successful No TransLink Tax campaign last year. “But the people have definitively said NO to handing TransLink yet another tax and their representatives need to respect that crystal clear decision.”

During last year’s TransLink tax plebiscite, the No TransLink Tax campaign released its Better Plan, which showed that city halls across the Lower Mainland had enjoyed revenue growth of nearly 6 per cent every year. By allocating 0.5 per cent of future revenue growth to their plan, the mayors could have funded their wish list with no new taxes – and no plebiscite.

With the federal government coming on board for half the construction cost, TransLink mayors would now have to reallocate just 0.25 per cent of their future revenue growth to fund their plan. That means reprioritizing just $1 of every $400 they plan to spend.

“Mayors are quick to reach for your wallet but continue to reject the idea that they should reprioritize their own spending,” said Bateman.

TransLink still hasn’t regained the public’s trust after years of waste and inefficiency, Bateman noted.

The bulk of the transit funding announced by the federal Liberals yesterday won’t be spent until after 2021 (see p. 87 of the budget document), so there is no need to rush a bad tax on to Lower Mainlanders. 

“These mayors should take a breath, fix TransLink, and reprioritize their own city hall spending,” said Bateman. “The opportunity is here for the TransLink mayors to show intelligent, visionary leadership, if they will just listen to the strong message the people sent them with their votes last year.”