{"id":48031,"date":"2014-03-17T08:30:15","date_gmt":"2014-03-17T12:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=48031"},"modified":"2014-03-18T21:56:35","modified_gmt":"2014-03-19T01:56:35","slug":"lorinc-mayoral-candidates-carve-positions-transit-revenue-tools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2014\/03\/17\/lorinc-mayoral-candidates-carve-positions-transit-revenue-tools\/","title":{"rendered":"LORINC: Mayoral candidates carve out positions on transit revenue tools"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"feature-lorinc\"<\/a><\/p>\n

To tee up the surreal transit funding discussion that will take place at City Hall’s executive committee this week, here\u2019s a quick recap on the witch\u2019s brew of ideas\/non-ideas in circulation right now:<\/p>\n

Liberals<\/strong>: Mostly ignoring the expert advice she\u2019s received from Metrolinx and Anne Golden\u2019s Transit Investment Panel, Premier Kathleen Wynne continued to cave to Andrea Horwath\u2019s demands last week by ruling out the HST and a gas tax hike as possible funding sources, and vaguely promising something in time for the budget.<\/p>\n

NDP<\/strong>: Horwath\u2019s crew now say they want to hike taxes for corporations and high-income earners, and claim these measures will raise about $1.8 billion per year, although it\u2019s by no means clear whether all or some of this windfall will go to transit, and if the funds that are, in fact, pledged will be dedicated.<\/p>\n

Progressive Conservatives<\/strong>: Tim Hudak says he\u2019ll search diligently between the pillows of the provincial chesterfield to find the billions needed to build subways. But as many experts, including Golden and the Toronto Region Board of Trade, have said, finding efficiencies alone won\u2019t pay the fare.<\/p>\n

John Tory<\/strong>: After spending two years yodeling about the need for a revenue tool that spreads the pain as widely as possible \u2013 by which he meant the HST — and even lambasting both the Tories and the NDP for ducking the debate, Tory\u2019s said nothing to date that suggests specificity.<\/p>\n

Olivia Chow<\/strong>: Spokesperson Jamey Heath says Chow, who was the federal NDP\u2019s transportation and infrastructure critic, has no position on any specific revenue tool, and told me I was asking \u201chypothetical questions.\u201d \u201cI don’t see why we’d get into debating which revenue tool is better when it’s not a council decision.\u201d (Council, as it happens, spent a long and hallucinatory session<\/a> last May debating which tools it should recommend to Metrolinx; it rejected almost all of them, including the property tax, which is now being used to fund the Scarborough subway.)<\/p>\n

Karen Stintz<\/strong>: In defiance of the laws of gravity, economics and common sense, Stintz declared she would fund transit expansion without more revenue tools, pledging instead the proceeds of the 10% of Toronto Hydro the city\u2019s allowed to sell.<\/p>\n

David Soknacki<\/strong>: In an interview last night, he said he was \u201cdisappointed\u201d by Wynne\u2019s position and feels the whole suite of proposed taxes and levies should be on the table, including the HST, the gas tax, higher transit fares and even property taxes. \u201cThe more you put on, the less you need from any of those tools,\u201d Soknacki said, adding that the Chow campaign\u2019s refusal to take a position is \u201cirresponsible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rob Ford<\/strong>: He\u2019s ruled out donations from Kevin Spacey to help underwrite the cost of new subways, so the fairy, um, dust option becomes that much more crucial.<\/p>\n

So now on to this week\u2019s absurdities: On Wednesday, executive committee will consider a staff \u201cupdate\u201d on Metrolinx\u2019s investment strategy\u2014 or what\u2019s left of it. The report,<\/a> signed by the city\u2019s three top bureaucrats, is a good one, as far as it goes.<\/p>\n

They recommend more political representation on the Metrolinx board; additional latitude for municipalities in spending the promised 25% of dedicated revenues for local transportation initiatives; a return to the Bill Davis formula of splitting the net operating cost of transit service between the province and the city; and a distribution of funds based on the provincial gas tax formula, which was established in 2003 and relies on these principles (they are well worth quoting in their entirety, as itemized in the report):<\/p>\n