No TransLink Tax Campaign Offers Better Plan

January 15, 2015

The No TransLink Tax campaign recommends cutting TransLink waste and using 0.5% of future local government revenue growth to fund transit expansion. Full website now up at www.NoTransLinkTax.ca

VANCOUVER, BC: The No TransLink Tax Campaign has hit full stride today, unveiling a new website at www.NoTransLinkTax.ca, making a series of recommendations in a new No TransLink Tax: A Better Plan document, and releasing an in-depth accounting analysis of the TransLink Mayors’ wish list.

“Job one is fixing TransLink so it stops wasting so much of our money – that should have been the top priority for the TransLink Mayors from day one,” said Jordan Bateman, No TransLink Tax spokesperson and Canadian Taxpayers Federation B.C. Director. “You can’t simply throw more money on the fire to burn. NoTransLinkTax.ca reinforces that message in a pointed, but humorous, way.”

The No TransLink Tax: A Better Plan document, released today by the campaign, highlights many of the issues facing voters, recommending:

  1. Voters reject the TransLink sales tax
  2. That elected officials aggressively address TransLink waste and fix TransLink’s broken and unaccountable corporate culture
  3. TransLink Mayors should prioritize their wish list
  4. Instead of a sales tax, TransLink Mayors should earmark 0.5% of their future revenue growth to transportation

“The TransLink Mayors’ big secret is that revenue growth among TransLink, Metro Vancouver and the 21 municipalities will clip along at 4.8% a year over the next decade. That’s far more than inflation or any other level of government,” said Bateman. “The Mayors could fund their plan tomorrow by simply earmarking 0.5% toward transportation – we wouldn’t have to pay a new sales tax, and they’d still have a 4.3% windfall of new money to spend every year.”

The No TransLink Tax campaign has also released a 50-page analysis of the TransLink Mayors’ wish list, and alternate funding options, prepared by an independent Certified Management Accountant.

To see the No TransLink Tax: A Better Plan document, click HERE

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