Quote:
Originally Posted by cal_guy
Water and wastewater can be handled with water rates or per unit charges or a combination of both. Roads roads would be better served with an actual road toll ,a congestion charge, a tax on vehicles, and or a tax on km driven.
|
I think that is what I was trying to say. I perfer a congestion tax over a per km tax, or a direct toll as driving on a road when it is not busy does not create a burdan on the system. It is only when alot of cars need to get to the same place that interchanges and additional lanes are required. If you could chop of the peak usage you could significantly reduce road requirements as the other 18hours a day don't need nearly as much road.
However if any candidate ever campaigned on a density toll they would lose immediately even if it was going to be matched with a property tax reduction so it really is a non-starter. And that assumes they could get that tax authority from the province.
A more palatable option would be to charge a huge parking tax. Right now private lots make large profits based on the cities limitations on the number of parking spots permitted downtown. If the city is creating this demand they should reap the profits from it. So adding 50% parking tax would allow the city to make up some of the costs in providing roads to downtown. This wouldn't increase parking rates as demand / supply sets the price and not the cost to provide the service.
Again probably a political non-starter but we need innovative ways of charging the people who cost the city more a portion of that increased cost.