02-11-2015, 12:32 PM
(02-11-2015, 10:10 AM)numberguy Wrote: I believe the Elmira bus service is still a township paid service. GRT is paid for by the cities (Kitchener, Cambridge, Waterloo). The townships tax do not get levied taxes for GRT, hence they get no service. Elmira pays for its bus service as an exception. For them to get more service, the township would have to pay more, or choose to be levied for the GRT. The leadership and voters would have to make that choice. I don't think it's a GRT decision.
I believe GRT is one of the few Region of Waterloo services that has a differential levy treatment. (LRT/ION is also not levied on the townships)
I think the Region missed a huge opportunity last year when they agreed that the Townships did not have to pay for the LRT. If instead, every property, regardless of location, saw their taxes raised specifically to pay for transit improvements, it would have made things easier in the long-term for transit planning. For instance, Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge's "Transit Levy" could have gone towards supporting the LRT and LRT-related transit improvements like increased feeder line service. The Township's "Transit Levy" portion could have gone towards inter-town or Town-City transit. Yes, the majority of the funding would still go towards the LRT, but the Region could implement simultaneous Township transit improvements as well.
The Region would have had a lot more flexibility in their transit planning. The conversation would have been about "When am I going to get the service that I'm paying for?" rather than "I don't want to pay for a service that I currently can't use, and therefore will never use, because the service doesn't yet exist." Instead, a number of vocal Township residents can defeat any kind of localized increase that would introduce increased transit service by raising hell about increased taxes.
Put a different way, can you imagine what services planning would be like if, rather than the current system to built-in development charges to support city infrastructure, individual neighbourhoods were taxed only when services were proposed and added to their neighbourhood? There would be a lot fewer services built (everything from trees to trails to libraries to fire stations) if individual homeowners saw their taxes go up in bits and pieces. Can you imagine how easy tree planting would be if every time a tree was planted in your neighbourhood, a portion of the bill was added to your property tax while your neighbours in the next neighbourhood over didn't have their taxes raised because they didn't have the tree planted there instead?
The Region was definitely shortsighted and will be paying for this for decades to come.