Translink & 0.5% vote (merged)

So we have a great public transportation system - one of the best - and we should spend more money on it. Makes sense.

Mayors got together and decided that instead of their municipalities coming up with the funding, the provincial government should come up with the funding. After all, it's not like it's a regional thing and responsibility for funds should be that of the region, like in other regions.

How is the tax being implemented? Do businesses have to add an extra tax on top of GST/PST, as has been reported by business groups that oppose the PST increase? They are staying that it will cost a fair bit to implement.

It is a simple PST increase, to be remitted by businesses just like the PST is done now. No different accounting system, nothing different on invoicing, just a slightly larger $ number. PST remitted to the province will be split out when the government receives it.

It is a simple PST increase, to be remitted by businesses just like the PST is done now. No different accounting system, nothing different on invoicing, just a slightly larger $ number. PST remitted to the province will be split out when the government receives it.

Not a simple PST increase. It will be selectively applied on a geographical basis. - and apparently it is separate from the PST

The proposed tax, the first of its kind in Canada, would be applied as a regional sales tax to most goods and services that are subject to the provincial sales tax and are sold or delivered within the region. However, the tax would be “separate and distinct” from the PST, Walton said, while all revenues would also be independently audited each year.

So you will pay based on where you shop, not where you live.

And PST fairies will fix cash registers, tills, accounting software, Interac etc, like they always do - free of charge!

I bet businesses in some areas on one side of the street will resent having to charge 0.5% more than their competitors on the other side of the street (think car dealerships, for example - it also applies to private sale of used vehicles).

Now this is funeh:

Max Cameron, a political-science professor at the University of British Columbia, said this ensures that only Lower Mainland residents pay for the improved transit system, but that such a tax may include exemptions for certain "big-ticket” items like cars.

“It would be supremely ironic if we exempted cars from the very tax designed to reduce congestion and pollution and provide for public transportation,” he said.

http://www.vancourier.com/opinion/columnists/check-your-ego-at-the-transit-gate-door-1.1780767

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^^ Small font is small

Not a simple PST increase. It will be selectively applied on a geographical basis. - and apparently it is separate from the PST

So who's wrong - you or KenN?

lol on the award to Translink. Video at the end of the article is interesting.

http://globalnews.ca/news/1857829/canadian-taxpayers-federation-gives-translink-lifetime-achievement-award-for-waste/

http://www.davidsuzuki.org/blogs/climate-blog/2015/03/top-five-reasons-to-vote-yes-in-the-transit-referendum-even-if-you-dont-like-tra/

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So who's wrong - you or KenN?

Not my take … just that of Mayor Richard Walton, chairman of the Metro Van mayors’ council.

I'm not opposed to taxes to pay for it, I'm opposed to the way its being done. IMHO, a surcharge on property tax (close proximity to transit adds to property value) and/or a fuel surcharge (since businesses will get a rebate) are better ways to do it. Then again, only a good capitalist would applaud making the working poor pay a regressive tax for transit improvements.

Pattison to chair accountability around spending of collected revenue: https://twitter.com/iainblack_vbot/status/573571526391300096

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http://www.davidsuzuki.org/blogs/climate-blog/2015/03/top-five-reasons-to-vote-yes-in-the-transit-referendum-even-if-you-dont-like-tra/

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The points aren't really strong, or aren't very well laid out.

The "no" campaign has a website:
http://www.notranslinktax.ca/betterplan

I read that businesses in the outskirts do not like the tax because they believe it will cost more money to implement, and that people will go a little further out to purchase goods from an area where the extra PST isn't implemented. But there are also articles stating that the extra PST wouldn't be a separate line item so implementation wouldn't be an extra cost.

Then again, only a good capitalist would applaud making the working poor pay a regressive tax for transit improvements.

It is the poor, who generally don't own a vehicle, who have the most to gain from increased transit service.
You know, the ability to access a job with an awkward early morning start or late night finish. Or vice-ah versa.
You make it sound as though the un-poor don't pay, but they do and will pay the most which is just as it costs more to subsidize the infrastructure for their cars. But you knew that amiright?

I remember working afternoons at Rocky and lining up at the punch clock at midnight to punch it and then literally run the couple blocks to the bus stop at the Cliveden exit at the south end of the Alex Fraser to catch the last bus going to 22nd stn. Missing it meant calling a fucking cab. And on a bike wage-slaves' wages that would've sucked.

Any reason we aren't bumping up the corporate tax rates from it's lofty 11% rate?

http://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/topic.page?id=68E5DBC15D4F458CB2783F35CFABB19C[HTML_REMOVED]title=Tax%20Rates%20and%20Business%20Limits

Or here's an idea, maybe we charge Nestle more than 2.25$/1,000,000L for our water to make up some of the shortfall.

Not really sure why this has to be a PST increase, or (as suggested by someone else, property taxes).

Any reason we aren't bumping up the corporate tax rates from it's lofty 11% rate?

http://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/topic.page?id=68E5DBC15D4F458CB2783F35CFABB19C[HTML_REMOVED]title=Tax%20Rates%20and%20Business%20Limits

Or here's an idea, maybe we charge Nestle more than 2.25$/1,000,000L for our water to make up some of the shortfall.

Not really sure why this has to be a PST increase, or (as suggested by someone else, property taxes).

Because the personal tax rate for the top earning segment is 45.8% in BC (over 151K) which presumably is the same group that benefiting from the low corporate tax rate.

Low corporate tax rates benefit small and medium size companies.

The premise is that a company will pay its owners well, and they will pay taxes at a high individual rate. You have to remember that the economy is driven by small and medium size companies. The mega-international corporations that operate in BC are usually involved in a tax scheme that will see them pay an abnormally small amount of taxes no matter the rate.