City Councillor and TTC Commissioner Joe Mihevc raised the possibility of a fare hike if the Tories win the federal election in the Toronto Star today. The Tories have promised a 16 per cent discount that transit riders could claim as a credit on their income tax return.
“If we at the TTC — who are in a big budget squeeze — suddenly find out a few days from now that passengers are going to be getting a discount on their income tax, there will actually be upward pressure on increasing fares,” he said.
The discount reduces the monthly pass by $15.80, which provides room for the TTC to boost the cost back up so that passholders neither gain nor lose, while providing more revenue for the transit system, Mihevc warned. “This isn’t a net benefit to riders because transit authorities will be tempted to increase fares for monthly passholders, so in the end passengers won’t save.”
Such a scenario would be even more likely if Harper doesn’t follow through on his promise to honour transit funding agreements reached with the Paul Martin Liberals, he said.
James Bow, of the Transit Toronto blog, has a good post analyzing this assertion. Also, Andrew Spicer thinks Mihevc (an NDPer) is just trying to play up Tory victory fears. Spicer points out the NDP claims Harper stole the transit-user tax break from the NDP platform.