Translink is proposing yet more high minded changes without any meaningful public input after making a huge mistake in their budget. And there is the usual terrible reporting. They've decided that they suddenly need 70% more in property taxes to fund new buses. 70% MORE??? They want to raise the taxes from $89/$100 000 assessed value to $150. Translink said in their approved plan (executive summary) that the increase was $20 per $100k to generate $58 Million. This was to be combined with approximately $40 Million of other increases to generate $100 Million.
The Vancouver Sun article goes into details on this. But alas, the translink site doesn't have the report online yet. So we can't find out the real details. And the article doesn't compare what Translink are doing with what Translink said they would do.
The Sun article should have said something like
Translink triples proposed property Tax Grab
Translink has over tripled the amount of property tax it wishes to garnish after only 1 year into it's 10 year plan without any public consultation on this dramatic change. Perhaps this change has happened because of the recently approved RAV line. In the original 3 year plan, the $20 tax increase was alleged to bring in $58 M annually. With the increase of $61 in taxes to generate $60 M, it's clear that the original 3 year plan had only $20 M from taxes. This left the original plan 40% under funded as it stands. How did the 3/10 year plan make a 40% mistake on how much revenue it would generate overall and make a 67% mistake on how much it would generate from property taxes?