[溫哥華本地新聞] TransLink's funding plan hinges on raising taxes 卡, funding, raising

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TransLink's funding plan hinges on raising taxes

TransLink’s newly announced “base plan” to send a rapid bus over the new Port Mann Bridge and add an express B-Line bus service in Surrey hinges on persuading the region’s mayors to raise property taxes.



Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/metro/TransLink+finds+funding+Port+Mann+Bridge+rapid+other+projects/7254983/story.html#ixzz26pdxWx1g
Bob Paddon, executive vice-president of strategic planning, said Monday TransLink has found $98 million in annual efficiencies over the next three years, which would help fund those projects, as well as the new Evergreen Line, while adding 109,000 new hours of transit service, and upgrading seven SkyTrain stations.
But the plan also depends on using $124 million from TransLink reserves as well as the $30 million annually that TransLink would reap from a two-year, time-limited property tax increase approved by Metro Vancouver mayors last year.
Simon Fraser University political science professor Lindsay Meredith said it appears the players in the transit issue are gearing up to play hardball.
“TransLink is saying we’ve got nowhere to go; this is the only card we have left to play and the provincial government have made us do it,” he said. “There’s a lot of posturing going on. This is not unusual; you see this happen all the time. All sides up the ante.”
Mayors voted earlier this year to nix the two-year increase, equivalent to about $23 per homeowner, saying it was only a stopgap measure while they negotiated with the province on potential new funding sources. Discussions are still ongoing.
The mayors voted against the increase because carbon taxes and a vehicle levy were rejected as funding sources.
“We went ahead and entered into discussions in good faith and two of those sources of revenue were dismissed outright (by the province),” said Richard Walton, chairman of the mayors’ council on regional transportation. “We weren’t overly thrilled. We’re not going to continually have property taxes be the fallback position.
“We understand additional transportation will cost more money. But we’re saying the meaningful discussion has still not taken place with the province.”
The mayors are scheduled to meet with TransLink this week to discuss the base plan, which aims to save $47 million per year and boost revenue by $60 million by shifting bus resources to routes with higher demand, leveraging real estate assets, and increasing or introducing parking rates at TransLink-run park and ride lots. The plan will go to public consultation before being finalized in November.
Walton wouldn’t speculate on whether he thought the mayors would change their minds about a property tax. “Obviously it’s a political hot potato,” he said, “(especially) for communities south of the Fraser where there’s a strong need for transit.”
TransLink said if mayors continue to balk at the tax increase, a supplementary plan would have to be drawn up later this fall, and service cuts are possible. As it is, Paddon said, TransLink can’t fulfil all of its earlier promises.
The express B-Line bus service in Surrey, for instance, would run on King George Boulevard and 104th Avenue but won’t extend to White Rock as promised, while the rapid bus service from Langley to New Westminster over Port Mann Bridge, will run every 10 minutes during peak hours and 30 minutes during off-peak hours. It was promised that the service would run every 10 minutes off peak.
“There is a gap; we can’t deliver everything we promised,” Paddon said, adding: “This is going to have an impact on our customers.”
Walton, mayor of North Vancouver District, said he will take the base plan back to his council, noting a promised expanded SeaBus service, which would have provided 15-minute service on Sundays and holidays in fall, winter and spring, isn’t part of the proposed base plan.
Other projects put on hold include a plan to increase bus service by a further 306,000 hours, and restoring original funding promised for cycling programs and the major road network.
Meredith expects lines will be drawn in the sand, especially among mayors south of the Fraser and the more transit-rich cities.

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Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts and Langley City Mayor Peter Fassbender insist the mayors should honour the tax commitment they made a year ago.

The two were among seven Metro Vancouver mayors who voted in favour of TransLink’s 2040 strategic plan last year that called for a two-cents-a-litre boost in the gas tax and the potential interim property tax to pay for the Evergreen Line and regional transit projects.

Mayors in Burnaby and Richmond have never supported the property tax increase.

“You can’t all of a sudden pull the plug out when a lot of different municipalities supported [transit] infrastructure going elsewhere,” Watts said. “Having a rapid bus across the Port Mann and a B-Line in place along King George is something we want to move forward with.”

TransLink chairwoman Nancy Olewiler said the mayors or TransLink weren’t aware of the substantial drop in fuel tax revenue when they voted to nix the tax increase. TransLink said it faces an estimated $30-million drop this year in its gas tax revenue, which is expected to be $145 million less in 2014 than the $380.3 million forecast.

This is blamed on drivers filling up south of the border or in the eastern Fraser Valley, as well as an increase in the number of hybrids and electric vehicles.

“None of us knew the magnitude of the fuel tax revenue decline,” she said. “The world has evolved. We’re in close contact with the mayors and we’ll see what unfolds.”

The transportation authority was also told earlier by TransLink Commissioner Martin Crilly it could only raise transit fares by 10 per cent next year, rather than the 12 per cent it had proposed.

Meanwhile, TransLink said $30 million in cost savings have already been found by reducing 90 management and professional positions, cutting overtime and labour costs and using more fuel-efficient vehicles.

More savings are expected from the provincial TransLink audit currently underway.

Paddon said less-used bus routes may see reduced service, such as hourly instead of half-hour schedules, with buses reallocated to high-demand areas, while SkyTrain service will be trimmed during non-peak hours. TransLink will also trim its “buffer” fleet, which means fewer spare buses on standby, and will cut “slack” time, which had given drivers extra time to make connections if they were caught in traffic, and use smaller, cheaper buses where possible.

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Artist rendering of 'Rapid Bus' to be used as shuttle on the Port Mann Bridge

Passengers board the 106 bus running between New Westminster and Burnaby.