Parking tax trimmed

The TransLink board has voted to cut its controversial new parking site tax by 20 per cent. The move follows demands from a coalition of business groups to scrap the tax altogether.

But the transit authority says it still needs the parking money to help pay for road and transit improvements.

When it first unveiled the tax, TransLink said it planned to generate an additional $20 million a year charging $30 a year on each parking stall.

But then TransLink changed that to a rate of $1.02 per square metre of non-residential parking space, in every non-residential lot in the Lower Mainland based on the total area instead of individual stalls.

That means loading bays, truck turn-arounds and traffic islands are being counted as parking.

Subsequent calculations showed the new tax would generate about $25 million a year. So now, the reduction annnounced on Monday will bring the overall tax back down to the original $20 million.

The board also plans to review how the tax is applied, and who will end up paying the tax.

• FROM JUNE 22, 2005: Malls face parking stall tax

"The bottom line, we need to scrap this tax. It's unfair, it's inequitable, it's regressive and it's extremely destructive and all British Columbians should be worried about it."

Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan was equally unimpressed. Corrigan, who has voted against the parking tax since it first came up, says TransLink is now desperate for money after approving an ambitious 10-year plan it can't afford.

"This is like buying a house that's too expensive for you, that you can't pay the mortgage. Well what you should have done is not buy so expensive a house."

Corrigan says another downside of the parking tax is that it's more money being taken from taxpayers at the municipal level. He says that makes it harder for cities to raise taxes to help finance major projects of their own.

Critics have also pointed out that an increase of one cent a litre on the regional gas tax would generate as much money as the parking tax.

• INTERVIEW: The Early Edition's Rick Cluff speaks with Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan.