Could Surrey have to dip into taxpayer money to fund light rail?
Posted November 23, 2014 8:49 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
SURREY (NEWS1130) – If Surrey’s incoming mayor ends up trying to get light rail running without TransLink’s help, would there be concerns about dipping into the tax base to fund it?
Mayor Linda Hepner says she’d look at public-private partnerships if we vote no to the funding options in the referendum.
Jordan Bateman with the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation says the fact she wouldn’t necessarily go to the people for more money, and would consider other sources of revenue is commendable.
He doesn’t think it would necessarily be bad if Surrey were to move ahead without TransLink. “Anything that de-claws or takes away some of the power of the highly-paid executives running TransLink is probably a good thing for transportation. We need more of these kind of innovative solutions,” he explains. “She’s not just going to the taxpayer and demanding more money, she’s actually trying to find ways to fund it through P3’s, through development fees, trying to find sources of revenue that don’t rely on the taxpayer directly.”
But, he adds Translink would have to approve any kind of a rival authority, so some legislative changes would need to be made first.
