The Editor,
Re. "Metro mayors vote for sales tax hike referendum" (The Tri-City News, Dec. 12).
There may be more opposed to this transit tax referendum as time goes on but, right out of the gate, I am with Jordan Bateman of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. I fully support improving transit but not increasing an already high tax jurisdiction. The cost of living in the region is already outrageous and high taxes lead or top the list for the reason for that.
Then my biggest opposition to this is the open-ended tax question. There should be a sunset/end clause date to the tax increase. Right now, the mayors are asking for 0.5% indefinitely. There is no way I want to agree to that. Second, I do not trust TransLink and/or governments of all levels to spend the money in the way they say they will. We have many examples of this not happening over many decades.
Are we supposed to believe it is going to be different now?
Transit needs funding but the province should take the 0.5% the mayors requested out of the existing 7% PST but do not increase/add new taxes to an already over-taxed jurisdiction.
Ken Wood, Coquitlam
