16:07
We already have a toll on the provincial highways. It is called the gasoline tax. Do your research on where that money is supposed to go.
The tolls that Tory and his ilk want to levy have nothing to do about paying for roads. It is all about getting people out of their cars and use public transit. Ask anyone who lives in Aurora but takes their cars to work how well public transit works for them. Sure it is marginally cheaper, but if your office is not anywhere close to a subway line, you are in for a substantial time commitment one way.
Posted by Anonymous to Our Town and Its Business at 8 March 2017 at 09:
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The gasoline tax is shared with municipalities. it's h-u-u-ge.
John Tory wanted to charge a toll on the DVP and the Gardiner for new revenue to keep Toronto
property taxes down. Somehow, despite being Mayor of Ontario's largest city, he thought it wise to tax commuters to drive on provincial highways within his city.
The firstbasic principle of taxation is they should be simple easily understandable.
If the Mayor of the city doesn't understand the melange,it's not clear to me how ordinary residents can be expected to have the hang of it. But principles are long gone.
When the city was being amalgamated, the big fear was runaway cost. Several layers of government were being abolished but the worry was how much more it would cost.
So the province took responsibility for education tax and uploaded Toronto's housing and social services budget to surrounding Regions.
They said it was because Toronto was providing housing and social services throughout the GTA.
They lied.
People don't expect government to lie.
In the last couple of days,discussion has been how the province lowered hydro costs by stretching debt out longer.
Some think that's not fair.
There's always more than one way of looking at a problem.
But....municipalities were required by the province to privatize Hydro.
The decrease in charges is welcome. But how is that provincial business with Hydro privatized?
And....If cost of supply is that much higher,what was the advantage of privatizing?
Some think it's not fair to stretch out debt to have several generations pay for infrastructure that brings power to their homes and businesses .
I do not share that view.
I do however object to paying taxes to maintain sixty million dollars in reserves to save generations down the line the cost of replacement down the line.
Auroraalso has a reserve fund to meet the costs of new firefighter contracts. So politicians down the line won't have to answer for vastlyincreased costs of providing fire protection. It's called a tax stabilizing fund.
I will be long gone but still paying for fire protection.
It's not enough to pay taxes for almost sixty-years for everything I received and much I had no interest in receiving, I am now required by our local financial genius, to pay forward for future salaries of the new class of public service millionaires.
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3 comments:
Public service has certainly become a growing and lucrative industry.
Prior to 2004, the provincial gasoline taxes were exclusive to the province. Historically, the tax was to fund the building and maintenance of provincial roads. In 2004 the province decided to allocate a portion of this revenue to municipalities to fund public transit.
"Somehow, despite being Mayor of Ontario's largest city, he thought it wise to tax commuters to drive on provincial highways within his city." Evelyn, you are wrong on this. The DVP and Gardiner are not provincial highways. They were transferred to Toronto a number of years ago. However, the province still approves the use of tolls as they fall under the Highway Traffic Act.
"People don't expect government to lie." I have to disagree with that too. I think people do expect that governments will lie. It happens all the time.
And were is the 4.3 cents a litre carbon tax that the province is taking from us since Jan. 1st going? or is it 4.3/litre? who really knows? I saw Ballard in the media getting accolades for $100 million pledged to combat homelessness, money this province doesn't have because of almost 15yrs of mismanagement. How much of this $100 million will the homeless actually see after everyone gets their cut in studies, consultations, administration and all those who were promised something or another?
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