Make Your Voice Heard: TransLink Taxes

The new TransLink Board is holding a public hearing and using its website to gauge opinion on a new property tax. From their press release:

The public hearing will be held from 6 to 9 pm on Monday, March 17, 2008 at the Firefighters' Hall, 6515 Bonsor Avenue in Burnaby, next to the Metrotown Shopping Centre and a short walk from the Metrotown SkyTrain station. TransLink's Board of Directors must set tax rates by the end of March.

While the parking site tax applied only to non-residential properties, provincial legislation passed last November included residential properties as a potential source for TransLink to recover the revenue. The business community has been calling on TransLink to spread some of the tax to residential property owners, and doing so would add about $13 to the tax bill of a home valued at $500,000.