Comments on the Board of Trade’s election priorities:
http://spacing.ca/votes/?p=149#comments
Comments on Councillor report cards:
Comments on the Board of Trade’s election priorities:
http://spacing.ca/votes/?p=149#comments
Comments on Councillor report cards:
Today’s Metro Morning included a discussion of road tolls as a way to fund public transit. Let’s put this in perspective.
The Gardiner Expressway report talks about a toll equivalent to a transit fare, and it would generate $130-million annually. What can we get for $130-million?
There is an unfortunate tendency to talk about funding sources such as tolls without putting them in context. We know that the TTC’s own Capital Budget projections require about $1-billion annually for the next 10 years. This includes about $3-billion worth of subway construction.
We keep talking about better transit, but we need to be honest about the amount of money involved. $130-million a year is small change beside the Board of Trade’s estimate that congestion costs the GTA $1.8-billion. Tolls might raise some money, but they are not going to solve all of our funding problems by a long shot, especially if we add major road projects like the Gardiner to our project list.
Any government thinking of funding transit has to face up to one basic fact: tax revenue (whatever you call it) has to go up. The only question is which pocket you pick.