The Metro Vancouver Board meeting on March 15, 2013, covered some important topics around transportation, finance, and development throughout the region. We post this here, for the record, and may add to it at a later date.
http://www.metrovancouver.org/boards/GVRD%20Board/RD_15-Mar-13_AGE.pdf
From the agenda
3.2 Memorandum of Understanding between Metro Vancouver and TransLink on the Regional Transportation Strategy
That the Board endorse the proposed Memorandum of Understanding enclosed in
the report dated February 9, 2013, titled, “Memorandum of Understanding between
Metro Vancouver and TransLink on the Regional Transportation Strategy.
3.3 TransLink Draft Supplemental Plan to the 2013 Base Plan and Outlook
That the Board advise the TransLink Board and Mayors’ Council on Regional
Transportation that the Draft Supplemental Plan is acceptable in consideration of
the removal of the property tax as a funding source.
MetroVanWatch note: Anyone interested should download the proposed MOU between Metro and TransLink, at the link provided above, at page 51 of 123. It appears that the proposed MOU eliminates property taxes as a revenue source for TransLink, but it includes the capture of land lift under the “Hong Kong model,” which uses increased land values to fund transportation — a system we feel is problematic for many reasons.
Excerpt:
The Mayors’ Council put forward recommendations on both short and long terms financing options, in part to offset the time-limited property tax, to the Province in early February 2013 (Attachment 3). Short-term recommendations included a minor sales tax of 0.5%, a vehicle registration fee / levy, regional carbon tax revenues and capturing the uplift on land values adjacent to transit. Long term financing solutions presented focused on planning and implementing a road pricing system for the region. With no solution confirmed by the end of February, TransLink has issued the Supplemental Plan to remove the time-limited property tax.
MetroVanWatch 