Mayors to reveal transit funding ideas today

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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – You’re going to pay for expanded transit somehow but today local mayors are poised to tell tell you their ideas for how to do it.

The 22 local leaders need to raise $30-million to fulfill their transit funding wish list. People are already getting dinged with a two-cent gas tax hike in April, but where the rest of the money comes from is not clear yet.

Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts says she is opposed to another property tax hike, saying that well is not bottomless.

She’s suggested tolls on bridges and tunnels across Metro Vancouver from 75-cents to one-dollar, not just on new spans like the new Port Mann Bridge, the Golden Ears Bridge and a yet-to-be confirmed new Pattullo Bridge.

Mayors have said they have eyed a new funding idea to raise cash in the short term after a long meeting earlier this month, but they won’t say what it is yet.

If mayors can’t find another source for short-term cash, your property taxes are slated to go up about $23 in 2013.

Whatever the plan, mayors must send it to the province by April 10th if it’s to be approved for next year.

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