Tax Me Some More

My calculation is that less than 5% of taxes collected directly from me are collected by the city of Toronto where I live. My income taxes and HST are paid to the federal and provincial governments. While some of that money makes it back to the city the vast majority of transfers are spent in rural and less well off regions. The last calculation I read was that Toronto recovered $10B less than it paid in income taxes alone.

This is the crux of the problem. We pay enough taxes but it directed away from the city for political reasons. Only a tiny portion of the taxes we pay are spent in the place where we live and work. The city does not have the ability to collect money other than through property taxes and user fees. If it was up to me 50% of the taxes I paid would be spent on the city, building transit and parkland. The city cannot collect an income tax by law.

You can listen to the right-wing pundits that say that there is plenty of money to fund projects if they find efficiencies, or you can be realistic and acknowledge that new revenues streams need to be found to fund transit projects.

Our premier, Wynne, who has no mandate to lead, has proposed Green Bond issues. Can't just propose bonds as that would not fit in with her far left agenda, She is trying to out flank the NDP on the left. She has abandoned the middle ground. The federal government has abandoned urban areas. Their base lives in rural and suburban Canada, urban transit is not a priority.

In an ideal world we would see a shift of tax collection from the federal and provincial governments to municipal levels, but they would never give up the tax collection revenue. Our only choice is new revenue streams for the city. A gas tax, road tolls, increase the HST by 1% and direct it to municipalities. A hotel room tax and tax on 905 Go transit tickets to fund urban transit. Let the suburbanites pay a small amount to the city where they work and play.

We have to greatly expand our transit system in Toronto and there is no other way than to increase revenues.