Comment 20312

By Rusty (registered) - website | Posted March 25, 2008 at 10:23:25

Couldn't agree more. We should put this article on the light rail website too. I'd like to see RTH take an 'official position' that free transit is the way to go. If nothing else we should continue to try and drive this debate. The more I look into this issue the more convinced I am that the benefits of free transit far outweigh the disadvantages.

As for how to pay for it? Well, we're seeing a lot of articles now about the tax 'imbalance' between the different levels of government. Christopher Hume's latest peice (see March 24th Blog) indicates that we get up to 80% of our services municipally, and yet we pay only 25% of our taxes to the City... It's clear that the pressure to change the tax model is going to build. Personally I believe that city transit taxes should come from all 3 levels of government, because good transit helps to drive a good local economy. Perhaps a free transit proposal could help to shape a new model of tax sharing...

Either way this has to be driven by someone somewhere. City of Hamilton is a good a proponent as anyone...

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