by arthur Weinreb,
February 23, 2005
People on the left coast tend to be more environmentally friendly (or obsessed) than many other North americans are. Toronto Mayor David Miller and his comrades on council no doubt look to some aspects of that western state with envy.
In an attempt to lower pollution and save the planet so to speak, Californians are buying hybrid cars in record numbers. Last week, CBS News gave an example of a young college student who purchased a hybrid car and managed to save approximately $300 less a month on gas.
and therein lies the problem. California officials are now concerned about the large decrease in the amount that the state now collects in gas taxes. Now fast forward to Toronto where Miller and his car hating cohorts do whatever they can to make driving in the city more difficult. They neglect gridlock and the conditions of the roads and any money that they do have is spent on constructing bicycle lanes on major arteries and speed bumps (or as the trendy call them, traffic calming measures) on side streets. But hardly a day goes by when the city’s mayor and chief panhandler doesn’t have his hand out for some of the provincial and federal government’s gas tax.
Miller and the council are likely to face the same paradox that California now faces; achieving the goal of reducing cars on the road will result in substantially less revenue. any decline in the amount of taxes collected on gasoline will give the other levels of government an excuse as to why they can’t bail out Toronto’s free spending council who consider spending reductions as a last resort to solve their financial problems.
at least California uses its gas tax revenues on highway and road construction and repair. any share of the gas tax that Miller gets will not go to roads; it will go to hiring more unionized outreach workers to deliver coffee to the homeless and to giving in to the wage demands of Miller’s union buddies when they negotiate new collective agreements. Some of the gas tax will go to the transit system, but not enough to convince many drivers that the TTC is in fact the better way. We now have a situation where we have an under-funded transit system in addition to crumbling and chaotic infrastructure.
California is now considering taxing its drivers by the mile. Big brother devices will be installed in automobiles that will collect data on how much an individual drives. The driver or owner of the vehicle will then be taxed according to how many vehicles that car has travelled during a certain time period.
In addition to large increases in both business taxes and property taxes, Miller will have to do find new sources of revenues to pay for his pet projects, especially if his beloved gas taxes shrink. Tolls on highways and California’s "tax by the mile" cannot be ruled out. and it’s only a matter of time before the federal government starts offering incentives to reduce the use of gas in its attempts to at least appear to be interested in making its Kyoto targets and will further reduce those gas taxes that Miller is constantly whining about.
The reality is that except for his workers and his homeless, David Miller doesn’t care about the people in his city; he cares only about his ideology. This was made clear when he expressed disappointment about those who are losing their jobs as a result of the 2004-5 hockey season being cancelled. He never expressed any sympathy for those who lost similar jobs when Toronto’s restaurants and bars going smoke free. Back then he couldn’t have cared less.
It will only be a matter of time before we end up like California and have to make up for losses in the gas tax by imposing new taxes. It will be enough to make you want to drive off a cliff.
Unfortunately, that might cost you.
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