TransLink’s mayors’ council has urged the transportation minister to approve a series of legislative changes that would provide $30 million per year to fund transportation improvements without hiking property taxes.
North Vancouver mayor Richard Walton, who chairs the mayors’ council, yesterday released to the public a letter that the mayors wrote to Blair Lekstrom on March 15.
It says that the mayors’ council wants Lekstrom to change legislation to:
- require the approval of TransLink’s base and supplementary budgets by the mayors’ council;
- enable a graduated vehicle registration fee or a new regional carbon tax to avoid a short-term property tax increase; and
- require either B.C.’s auditor general or the new local government auditor general to review TransLink.
If the B.C. government does not make these changes, Metro Vancouver residents can expect a $23 property tax increase next year.
The proposed vehicle levy or carbon tax are still considered “short-term” measures to provide additional money to pay for transit projects such as the Evergreen Line and rapid bus projects south of the Fraser River.
The mayors last year approved a $0.02 increase to the tax on a litre of gas – a measure that brings in $40 million annually to pay for transit.
