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By WhyBobWhy (anonymous) | Posted December 01, 2009 at 14:57:37
Once again while “trying” to be progressive Councillor Bratina shoots himself in the foot.
His suggestion to raise parking rates and use the revenue to maintain HSR transit fares at current levels, is laudable. But, his positioning that it would help private parking lot owners is insulting. Especially when many of these private parking lot owners are the same operators that demolished buildings to lower their property tax bills, and some even operate their parking lots illegally.
This isn’t the first time that Councillor Bratina taken a stand for parking lot owners. From The Spectator, April 2, 2008; But that unpaved parking lot on the HMP site is temporary only, Bratina says, because developer Darko Vranich is going to move smartly on the Hilton Homewood Suites he announced for that property last spring.
"Why would we harass a guy who's going to build a $40-million hotel?" Bratina asks.
If for some reason the hotel didn't get under way, he says, the parking lot would go. "We'd shut it down. Nobody makes fools of us."
The parking lot on the old HMP footprint is still in operation today. Bob, please remind me who is the fool?
If Councillor Bratina truly wants be progressive then he should investigate and propose a way to tax parking lots at a greater rate then they are currently taxed. Private lots would move rates higher because of the higher property tax, and the city could raise their municipal parking rates at the same time. This would help transit by making driving more expensive and ALL monies from the parking increases (city lot/metered generated & tax generated) could go directly to public transit providing vastly greater funding.
In light of Councillor Bratina’s recent vote on Area Rating and now this proposal, it would appear he holds the financial interests of parking lot operators in higher regard then the financial interests of tax paying homeowners of Ward 2, and the rest of the urban city.
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