City
Will Toronto ever get behind transit taxes?
It's become patently clear over the last year or so that the GTA desperately needs to find a way of funding new transportation infrastructure. As Rob Ford will tell you, subway, LRT and bus rapid transit corridors live and die over the amount of money in the pot.
To that end, the Toronto Region Board of Trade today outlined today its ideas for funding the next phase of transit projects, including the Downtown Relief Line, Yonge subway extension, and various GO Transit improvements.
Facing a $50 billion shortfall (spread out to $2 billion a year), the province will likely have to adopt one or more of the Board of Trade's recommendations if anything is going to get built. The benefits are clear: better transit equals lower commute times, higher productivity, lower emissions, and better health.
Here's a breakdown of the charges the Board of Trade is recommending:
- REGIONAL SALES TAX: A 1% tax on top of HST would raise $1.0-1.6 billion annually. For example, a $100 total at the checkout gets kicked up to $113 with HST. Adding a transit tax would make the bill $114. A similar charge is already used successfully in New York City, LA, and Seattle.
- PARKING SPACE LEVY: A $1 tax per space per day targeted at the owners of non-residential parking spaces would bring in $1.2-1.6 billion. This fee could be delegated to the driver paying the meter, however. Melbourne, Montreal, and Sydney already have a similar scheme.
- REGIONAL FUEL TAX: A flat-rate tax of 10-cents a litre on gasoline sales could haul in $640-840 million each year. Also used in Montreal, Vancouver, and New York City.
- HIGH OCCUPANCY TOLLS: Similar to carpooling, high occupancy lanes are free to vehicles carrying over a set number of people. Single-occupancy vehicles are charged a fee to use the lane. A fee of 30-cents per km would reap around $25-45 million. Houston, Orange County, and San Diego use this toll.
The board admits there are no taxes, fees, or tolls that don't have drawbacks or challenges. There will be vocal detractors of any fee but without a way of paying for new infrastructure Toronto will be doomed to gridlock and economic strangulation. One estimate suggests the cost of packed subway platforms and jammed highways could hit $15 billion annually within the next 20 years.
By 2031 the population of the GTA is projected to be around 8.6 million - 3 million more than right now. Without a better transit system, those new Torontonians will simply bring their cars and take up what little space is left at Yonge station during rush hour.
City council will weigh its options in the spring. Are there any taxes you think the Board of Trade is missing, an income tax, for example.
Which of these taxes do you think are the most viable? Do you think a gas tax could ever get the green light?
Chris Bateman is a staff writer at blogTO. Follow him on Twitter at @chrisbateman.
Image: "Rush Hour Congestion" by ariehsinger/blogTO Flickr pool.
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Build it first. Finance it. Issue debt. Get it done and reverse decades of neglecting to keep up with the growth of our city.
THEN, and only then, toll and tax the bejeesus out of people.
Personally, I favour a sales tax and/or payroll tax. Parking fees and HOV fees are too much of a direct levy, a "war on the car" if you will, and the Tea Party nutjobs (read: Ford voters) will go crazy and block implementation.
If we want subways like NYC, why don't we use one of the tax models that New York does...?
Details in this YouTube Link -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgT5MCEgfUU
When you add up user fees (insurance, permits, registration), municipal taxes, provincial taxes, federal taxes, we pay through the roof for seldom excellent service.
Not wrong, but you can at least argue that the majority of people drive because the transit options are terrible. If transit was improved, I bet a good percentage of those drivers would start using transit.
The one condition would be that the money is ACTUALLY spend on transit, and, not wasted...
Also, we shouldn't be given discounted fares. discounted fares aren't needed if we have fare by distance.
I live by Sheppard and Meadowvale (near the zoo), I go grocery shopping at the No Frills at Malvern Town Centre. Yet I pay the same amount for each trip as when I used to work at Queen/Bay.
Doing things local can save you a lot of money. Yet this sense of entitlement. my streetcar must come every 5 minutes, oh my god, the armageddon is upon us because we have to wait 10 minutes (Councillor Perks said this). When I have to wait 15-20 minutes for my bus.
The more fare discounts we give to people, the less income the TTC will have
Look at YRT/Viva cash fares:
Adult: $3.75
Student: $3.75
Senior: $3.75
Child: $3.75
Now, here in Toronto we have the poverty pimps that think people should get free fares. Free doesn't pay for expansion/maintenance.
You don't have the money to take your kids to the museum? well...walk to the museum, or go to something else in your area. Go to the park instead. way better.
Fare by distance I could pay $2 to go to Malvern Town Centre for my groceries each way and if I went to the Eaton Centre I would pay let's say $4 each way.
All these people have this sense of entitlement. Hate to say it but if you can't afford it, don't go to the other side of the city for the museum.
A perfect example would be University students. You don't need to go to downtown clubs and go drinking every weekend. Stay home, do you really need a metropass? Cut your social life. Stay on campus. It might be boring but at least you won't need to beg for money. Go to your campus's pub, or in the area, no need to travel. Also WALK to your local area pub.
These are just OTHER examples instead of just TAXING EVERYONE.
We could raise over a billion a year with a 1% tax, and we're not even considering it? This city gets what it deserves. FFS.
List is on the NY State site.
http://www.tax.ny.gov/bus/mctmt/emp.htm
Even if you never take transit in your life, the taxes you pay that go towards transit still go to benefiting you. Imagine if everyone drove... For example, it helps lower traffic congestion and the wear and tear on roads would be much much higher.
Also, you can't really go by Europe for an example. The cities built there are completely different. For one, they are much more dense. But also income levels are better distributed through out cities. While here in Toronto, pricing by distance would be more of a hit on lower income.
Not that I'm against having zones. I lived in London for many years and loved the system. They just aren't quite the same.
It's this "me first" attitude in Toronto that has tanked this city.
But by all means, blame the Liberal government.
I do, however, agree that the zone system the TTC used to have (Toronto=Zone 1, cross into a former borough=Zone 2) would be good, although they won't be able to do it until Presto is implemented. With Presto they could do multiple zones and charge different prices for rush hour, etc.
@picard102 - "We should focus on revenue, and not trying to punish people."
That's not punishment. It's like saying that paying for electricity is punishment for using a resource and infrastructure. Roads are an excellent case of a Tragedy of the Commons - where a free resource is overused until it becomes useless. Increasing property taxes on everyone, regardless of how much transit or highway they use, is punishment AND a poor source of revenue.
Generally, I think the best way to keep the complaining down is to make it transparent. Release a weekly digest of the money coming in from the different sources and the expenditures. Then everyone knows where and what the money went to. If Bob sees the $3 he paid to drive on the highway went to fix potholes on the QEW, he probably wouldn't mind. The politicians will just have to make sure they can't touch that income for other pet projects.
It takes people off the roads! It makes driving easier for you. Without it, driving will become horrendous if this doesn't happen.
I think a HST tax is the best bet. However, I've heard that because of it being an HST the province doesn't have the power to change the rate. So you can sort of kiss that financing method goodbye without repealing the HST provision (like BC is currently doing).
And if it isn't a sales tax, it needs to be fuel taxes. You need to get drivers out of their cars and into transit.
This is an AMAZING idea. We fucking subsidize them out the ass (windrow clearing anyone? sidewalk shovelling anyone? costilier city services per km anyone?), it is SOOOOOO the perfect time to turn the tables and SOAK the SHIT out of them for transit. I'd say $50, per household per year oughta be a good starting point. Then 25% increases over the next 10 years.
Done. Next...!
If the casino come in to Toronto, can we not get a deal so that part of the revenue gets used just for Toronto?
Or maybe start making better deals with waterfront cafes and subway station leases.
I don't mind paying more taxes if it is necessary but is it really necessary? All the money we never spent on expanding the Subways for the last 20 years. Where did it all go?
Cut the billions in government waste (ORNGE, eHealth, etc.) and start taxing churches. There will be plenty of money to fund transit then.
Work smarter, it's embarrassing.
The REAL Ford4ever does not share those thoughts.
Hopefully in the future, we will have a fiscally responsible provincial government that isn't busy padding its own pockets or their friends' pockets to have some money available to subsidize transit within the GTA. The GTA accounts for 5.5 million people which comprises 43% of Ontario's total population...and money needs to be allocated accordingly. The amount of money squandered by the Liberal government in eHealth, ORNGE and cancelling gas plants could have gone to updating our aging transit infrastructure. Funding needs to come from the province and it can't involve taxing only a certain group of people or a particular area of the province.
I'm not sure how taxing to build more transit and repair the highway system is treating suburbans as second class citizens. (FYI: 400-Series highways cost the taxpayer $2.4B/year - 90%+ of that money comes from the general treasury, not driver fees). Hundreds of thousands of suburban commuters use GO every day, me included (and pay for 90% of the costs). If they get to work easier, faster, and more comfortably I don't know how they lose out, especially if they pay the same costs as everyone else, including someone who only walks to work/stores or travels 5km instead of 40km.
@Alex - you can't save $3B/year by cutting those things. Your math is as atrocious as your policy making, especially since those were one time massive write downs. I do agree that the GTA does get screwed for funding though since we subsidize the rural areas and primary industry (such as through a 10 year tax vacation).
* Toll the main highways/roads into Toronto, only charging non-Toronto residents.
* Add an extra 1% tax to Goods (Non-food and Non-essential items. If you can keep buying all those Smartphones/tablets, you can afford to help with the transit)
Seems like that would solve the money issue.
That's the first reasonable thing you've said.
Hey BlogTo, give me this guy's email address, would you?
But was that money used for that? No. The city long-ago abandoned even the pretext of fixing infrastructure.
So no, we have not even the slightest hope that any transit tax money will go to anything other than making a few people richer.
What caused the "white-flight", the answer is simple. Mayor Jerome Cavanaugh and his engagement of the model-cities program, one of the early attempts of mass centralized urban planning. Further, the tax rates used to finance this absurdity was the primary driver of white people leaving the downtown. Indeed the whole decline of the city of Detroit has been presided over by Fabian-Socialist-Central-Planning loving mayors: Cavanaugh, Gribbs, Young, Archer, Kilpatrick, Cockrel Jr, & Bing(if you must know political affiliations, they are all Democrats). It's absurd to deny that the policy of these mayors has not contributed to the decline. Many houses in Detroit have tax burdens greater than their market value. The municipal government has literally made it irrational to live in Detroit, with their punitive tax rates to finance their ill-thought out spending. Why should the suburs subsidize decline? Who does that leave living in the city with such poor living conditions? Poor people who can't afford to move, the very people that Fabian Socialists claim to be helping. Politicians are directly responsible for the destruction of Detroit, not "capitalism".
The premise of your entire suburban lifestyle is a heavily-subsidized car culture, paid predominantly by those of us smart enough and reasonable enough not to partake in it. If you paid the full cost of maintaining the infrastructure your lifestyle requires you'd go bankrupt.
Get constantly raped --strong word, but carefully chosen-- by the suburbs year after years and eventually you gotta start pushing back.
Or don't you believe the downtown core has rights anymore, Jay?
If you're working 80hrs. a week, something tells me you made some poor decisions along the way. Sorry life didn't turn out as you'd planned, but that's no reason to take it out on others but tearing down everything that reminds you of success. Like a modern, thriving city where the citizens who work to make it a success also pay their fair share when it comes to the expenses, too.
Good luck...sounds like you need it.
"Toronto is the economic engine of Ontario. What benefits Toronto benefits Ontario. When Toronto grinds to a halt and can't conduct business because people can't move, that hurts Ontario. Therefore, just because you don't live in Toronto or have any hope of using transit in Toronto should not exempt you from having to share the cost. All Ontarioans should contribute, not just Golden Horseshoers."
Good on yam, Butternuts.
Spend everything we have, you don't care. What is fiscal restraint?? I don't know, but if it comes in a latte, I'll drink it.
Seriously, it's all this bleeding heart, toss-our-money-around b.s (shoes for immigrants--what was THAT???) and diminished services (have you tried to go skating in Etobiocke ever...they're barely open 8 hours a day--what ar kids supposed to do???) or toll roads for drivers (but not for Pride floats, I'll bet...HA, burn!) with you people.
I've had it. With this city, this province and this site.
First of all, I am not blaming just the provincial Liberals... I included Conservatives and NDP in the list as well (in case you didn't read closely). Also, I don't agree with your point that communities get pissed off when development fees go to pay transit infrastructure IF by "communities" you mean the public at large. Yes, municipalities don't seem to have any interest in collecting development fees to fund the added transit that these developments require... But that doesn't mean the public at large is against a) more appropriate (IE hIGHER) development fees; and b) using development fees to support transit infrastructure. The point, once again, is that none of the municipalities in the GTA seem to be interested in setting "development fees" at a rate that covers the added costs on local infrastructure from new development. In doing this, they are basically kowtowing to developers, not local residents, as you seem to think. Again, I'm not against special taxation for transit, but it seems to me that this "adult conversation" that some interests say we need to have is basically designed to narrow the menu of options that could be used to pay taxes. Case in point... the Board of Trade report, which seems to want to shift all the cost to average folks. There is nothing "me first" about pointing out how basically self-serving the Board of Trade's plan is.
Sorry, sir, but it's past time that drivers pay their fair share of keeping society functioning, and taxes on coming into the city and parking are a great first step that the City and Queen's Park should be doing. Not taxing the ordinary people that already use public transit.
I, the REAL Ford4ever, hereby retire my name, which was only ever a joke.
Cities are ecosystems and changes have to be handled carefully. You need to tone down your rhetoric.
P.S. Latest poll has Olivia Chow 60%-40% over Ford. I love that Mayor Coke Spoon is about to have a lot more free time to teach football.
Although the one crackpot thing you forgot to mention is how tinfoil hats keep the communist invader-spies out of your brain.
Stay golden, unicorn man!
You're kind of freaking people out with your conspiracy theories and bizarre crystal/pyramid-powered spaceflight hoo-ha.
Is this is what it's like when your meds get low, I don't ever want to grow old.
and see if the problem still exists.
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WIFI, just 3G .. Anyhow, superb blog!
Any ideas?
If you're working 80hrs. a week, something tells me you made some poor decisions along the way. Sorry life didn't turn out as you'd planned, but that's no reason to take it out on others but tearing down everything that reminds you of success. Like a modern, thriving city where the citizens who work to make it a success also pay their fair share when it comes to the expenses, too.
Good luck...sounds like you need it."
Apparently you've never heard of people who work in hospitals or the film industry. What is your definition of "poor choice"? How do you even know what I do? And how do you figure me paying over 50% of all my income into four different levels of tax plus various fees, surcharges, tariffs, etc. is not "paying my fair share? If over 50% isn't fair, what is? Please tell us, asshole.