Parking tax 'stupidity' blasted by coalition

The Vancouver group that has been battling to get rid of TransLink's parking site tax is encouraging Lower Mainland businesses to appeal their 2007 property assessments.

Park the Tax Coalition spokeswoman Laura Jones says business owners should take a close look at their assessments to see how much of their property is being taxed as parking space.

"The stupidity associated with this tax is endless, and one particularly silly example is a business owner being charged parking area tax for a vacant lot," said Jones.

The coalition of 23,000 businesses and organizations has been fighting the tax since it went into effect a year ago,calling the tax on commercial parking stalls punitive and destructive.

TransLink spokesman Ken Hardie said he expected people to appeal, and encourages them to do so if they think they're being treated unfairly.

So far, the tax has generated about $20 million for Translink.

Hardie says about $2 million of that is spent on administration and legal costs. But he said the remaining money has allowed the transit authority to borrow $180 million for road and transit improvements.

TransLink is chargingbusiness owners 78 cents a year for every square metreof non-residential parking space.