A few weeks ago, I had to drive to North Gower and back during the afternoon rush hour. It took me almost 3 hours, sitting in traffic, cursing the Gods.
The whole time I sat in traffic, I kept thinking, people VOTED for this.
You might ask, but did people know what they were voting for?
And I say “yes”.
Candidates can promise all sorts of unreasonable things during a campaign – but most people know that if a candidate promises to give each child a pony, that promise probably isn’t going to happen. Don’t vote for that candidate and expect a pony.
It is equally irresponsible to promise to keep taxes low while maintaining services.
If you vote for the low-tax guy, you’re voting for transit to be de-funded.
If the low-tax guy also demands that public servants return to the office, what you get is TRAFFIC.
It’s like math – there’s only one correct answer to 2+2.
Are you enjoying sitting in traffic day after day?
The foolish thing of course is that these policies are fiscally irresponsible. Most transit funding is fixed costs. Taxpayers have already paid the lion’s share of transit – we have the trains, the tracks, the bus routes, the bus shelters, the buses, the computer systems, the staff, the bus operators, the mechanics, etc.
What we’re arguing over is funding the small difference between bad service and good service.
De-funding transit causes service to become unreliable which causes people to stop using it. That doesn’t affect the cost of providing the service very much – it costs OC Transpo pretty much the same to run a bus that is half full as one that is full. But it REALLY reduces revenue. About half of OC Transpo’s revenue comes from transit fares so when fewer people take transit, OC Transpo struggles.
And for people who voted for the low-tax guy, how much are you saving?
While it depends on your household, most people saved about $40-60 per year thanks to the mayor’s insistence on not raising taxes in order to fund transit appropriately.
What does that cost residents?
Well, some people might have to buy a new car, or an additional car, or replace the car they have sooner than expected. Almost everyone is paying more for gas these days – undoubtably more than anyone is ‘saving’ in taxes. What about extra wear and tear on cars? Extra wear and tear on roads? The time wasted sitting in traffic?
Is that teeny-tiny tax break worth it?
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