Rapid Transit

[Dr Awesomesauce]

Originally Posted by durandy

anyway, if we're seeing this kind of conflict before the funding has even been announced, and the motion was for unanimous funding, what does that say for when Metrolinx comes out and says Hamilton you have to pay $250 million for this. I'm thinking LRT is dead. The Metrolinx money will go to other Rapid Ready projects.

^Betcha Hazel would cough up the dough.

[SteelTown]

Metrolinx – Regional Funding Tools

http://www.hamilton.ca/NR/rdonlyres/...ding_Tools.pdf

[thistleclub]

Noteworthy sidebar to FCS13002:

"Metrolinx is also proposing to allocate 25% of the $2 billion/year to support local transportation including roads, transit and bridges, active transportation and municipal controlled-access expressways. The municipal allocation formula and eligibility criteria have yet to be determined."

I suspect this is how they'll be able to mute/moot the politics of project scheduling. Every GTHA municipality paying into the kitty will derive millions in gas-tax-like benefits every year (and presumably see visible infrastructure improvements) whether they’ve broken ground on a Big Move project or not.

[thistleclub]

After bitter blowup, council to debate LRT funding
(Hamilton Spectator, Emma Reilly, April 26 2013)

In the aftermath of a heated showdown at Wednesday’s council meeting about light rail transit, city staff are poised to send a recommendation to the province on how to fund future transportation projects.

A report going before councillors at next week’s General Issues Committee meeting evaluates the 11 tools the province’s transportation agency, Metrolinx, is considering to generate revenue for massive transit projects.

Hamilton’s east-west LRT B-Line is on the list of Metrolinx’s 10 major projects, expected within the next 15 years under the second wave of its Big Move initiative.

Metrolinx has proposed several possible revenue-generators for these 10 projects, including road tolls, increased taxes and transit fares. Hamilton city staff say they’re amenable to all but four of the proposed fee avenues: local transit fare increases, property tax hikes, development charges and parking space levies.

In February, council voted to forward a pitch to the province in hopes of securing 100 per cent funding for the $800-million B-Line. Other cities, including Toronto, have seen the province pay the entire cost of rapid transit construction.

However, the staff recommendation is taking place in the shadow of what is, arguably, the most divisive and bitter exchange of this council term, which revolved around that February vote.

At Wednesday night’s meeting, a motion intended to reaffirm council’s support of an east-west LRT line became a heated and nasty debate that led to accusations that Mayor Bob Bratina was bullying City Manager Chris Murray.

That motion was ultimately tabled and is expected to resurface at the May 8 council meeting.


METROLINX’S PROPOSED REVENUE TOOLS

1. Employer payroll tax
2. Fuel tax
3. Highway tolls
4. Parking space levies (opposed by the City of Hamilton)
5. Property tax (opposed by Hamilton)
6. Sales tax
7. Vehicle kilometres travelled
8. Development charges (opposed by Hamilton)
9. High occupancy toll lanes
10. Land value capture
11. Transit fare increase (opposed by Hamilton)


Mississauga council, meanwhile, only opposed two revenue tools: property tax increases and transit fare increases.

[Dr Awesomesauce]

That Council meeting was one of the most brilliant bits of television I've seen in a long time.

[SteelTown]

Hamilton council says it’s all or nothing on LRT funding

http://www.thespec.com/news/local/ar...on-lrt-funding

Councillors have rejected a range of funding tools, fees and taxes intended to help pay for transit projects in the hope that the province will pick up the tab for 100 per cent of Hamilton’s light rail system.

But it’s a decision one councillor says puts the LRT line in jeopardy.

Metrolinx, the province’s transportation agency, has asked municipalities to weigh in on several possible revenue-generators to fund 10 major transit projects, expected to be built in the GTHA within the next 15 years. Metrolinx’s suggestions include road tolls, increased taxes and transit fare increases.

But city councillors say they’re not willing to accept any extra fees. Instead, they want the province to pay the full cost of Hamilton’s east-west LRT line — estimated to cost about $800 million — without facing any extra fees.

“It really is creating a tax,” said Councillor Sam Merulla. “How in God’s name would I ever support that?”

But Councillor Brian McHattie, the lone opposing vote in Wednesday’s decision, says that’s a dangerous move. He argues there are other municipalities vying for transit dollars that will be more than willing to “play ball” with the province when it comes to additional fees. He also says it makes him question whether his council colleagues are truly on board with LRT.

“I think what we’ve seen from council is that support for LRT is about a centimetre deep,” McHattie said. “While they support the reports, the concept of LRT, when it comes to taxpayers funding the programs with new dollars, there’s no support.”

Metrolinx is asking municipalities to comment on their proposed revenue tools in advance of its May 27 board meeting. Hamilton city staff recommended accepting all but four of the proposed fee avenues: local transit fare increases, property tax hikes, development charges and parking space levies.

Councillors say because the province paid 100 per cent of the capital costs for the first wave of its so-called Big Move projects, it should do the same for Hamilton. Council has always maintained that the province should pay the entire capital cost of the B-line LRT.

City manager Chris Murray says he’s received no indication from Metrolinx that Hamilton will be penalized for rejecting the proposed funding tools, as McHattie suggests.

“I appreciate his fears. But at the end of the day, Metrolinx was seeking input. And I believe that the committee has provided that funding.”

Still, Murray also pointed out that Hamilton council has little control over what, if any, fees the province ultimately decides to impose to pay for transit upgrades.

“The simple answer is, we’re in their hands. They can do what they want.”

[Dr Awesomesauce]

So desperate to hold on to their stupid jobs. That 'no new taxes' mantra is so tiresome, really. Get a new idea, Council, please.

So really, the Province could go forward with a new tax or user fee no matter what Council has to say - of course, who's listening to them anyway - and Hamilton taxpayers would have to deal with that fact and not enjoy any of the net benefits of those taxes to boot. Great idea, Hamilton. Can you smell where this is going?

[Jon Dalton]

What a pointless vote. They all know we will get new tolls or taxes if the Liberals get them through and council has nothing to do with it. This is just another bad message to the province that shows we are talking out both sides of our mouth on the issue. As it has been mentioned, Mississauga will shell out for tolls without complaining, and that is consistent with their LRT message.

Lloyd Ferguson is the only one here making sense. We will either pay for other cities' transit, or our own.

[Dr Awesomesauce]

I'm not Lloyd fan but he deserves credit for his professionalism and his unwavering support of b-line LRT. He is deputy mayor, after all, so I'd expect nothing less. His worship on the other hand...

[thistleclub]

Councillors clarify stance on LRT
(Hamilton Spectator, Andrew Dreschel, May 3 2013)

Councillor Brian McHattie may be right.

The brush-off councillors gave to Metrolinx’s array of potential taxes and fees to pay for transit projects in the GTHA may indicate softening support for LRT.

But the flip side to the rejection is councillors brought some much-needed clarity to where they stand on financing the proposed $811-million light rail system.

For more than two months, they’ve been coasting by on a resolution that calls upon the province to provide 100 per cent capital funding without spelling out exactly what they mean by that.

Until this week, they never had that direct discussion. It was almost as if both politicians and city staff either hadn’t thought of it or preferred to keep it ambiguous in order to maintain maximum buy-in around the council table and in the community.

That led to some political confusion, faulty assumptions and mixed messages. Thanks to the motion from Chad Collins and Sam Merulla, that fuzziness is ended.

The request for 100 per cent funding doesn’t mean the city is open to financing LRT by tolling Hamiltonians for driving on the Red Hill Valley Parkway or the Linc, or by slapping a new tax on the gas they buy or any other squeeze play the province might implement.

It means council expects the province to foot the complete bill, exclusive of any new taxes, fees and charges — just like it did when Metrolinx unveiled the first round of big transit projects back in 2008.

Collins noted that the so-called revenue raising tools Metrolinx is floating may be a trial balloon to find out exactly what GTHA municipal councils are willing to stomach. If so, the signal from this council is they have no appetite for cramming new taxes down the throats of Hamilton residents.

This basically solidifies the city’s position that we deserve special treatment from the provincial government because we’re a fiscally fragile municipality with a reduced ability to pay. Period.

How realistic is this line in the sand? Probably not very.

The province has repeatedly stated it can no longer afford to bankroll the next wave of big projects from its existing operating budget and municipalities won’t be given special consideration.

In sum, the province needs to raise $2 billion a year through new fees and taxes in order to finance some $34 billion worth of transit projects intended to reduce congestion, create jobs and stimulate growth.

As much as Hamilton may want to be part of this so-called Big Move, it’s dawning on councillors that all their efforts to keep a lid on local taxes over the past three years may be swamped in the face of this gathering wave. Councillors want to do the transit dance, but they don’t want to pay the fiddler.

The fact that Toronto city staff estimate $10 billion or more of the required $34 billion could be spent in Toronto certainly doesn’t help matters. That makes Hamilton’s $811-million LRT or the alternative $265-million express bus system, known as BRT, pale by comparison.

Problem is, neither Metrolinx nor the province has been clear whether potential fees and taxes imposed on Hamiltonians would be used solely for local transit projects or across the GTHA.

Doubtless some councillors recognize it’s in Hamilton’s economic interest to reduce inter-regional highway congestion. But the possibility of paying to help relieve Toronto’s inner city traffic woes for an unspecified number of years only makes an unpalatable scenario worse.

Consider this: Merulla is calling the new fees and taxes a “manipulative” form of downloading from a government which has wasted tens of millions of dollars through the Ornge air ambulance, eHealth and cancelled gas plants fiascos.

He also points out that provincially mandated programs already account for some 20 per cent of the city’s operating budget — about $600 per household. In other words, any form of transit taxation is just more piling on.

It remains to be seen whether McHattie’s fears for LRT’s survival are exaggerated or prescient. But clearly the rules of engagement have stiffened and changed.

[HillStreetBlues]

"the signal from this council is they have no appetite for cramming new taxes down the throats of Hamilton residents."

Sigh. I hate to see language like that in a "news" article. In what respect would a toll on the Linc or Red Hill be a tax? A toll is a toll. I don't like taxes any more than most, and really question councillors' supposed "efforts to keep a lid on local taxes." But revenue tools that charge actual users of a piecee of infrastructure a proportion of the actual costs to operate them are not taxes, and we shouldn't allow council or anyone else to mistakenly frame them as such.

We're not going to get anywhere with this one until the next municipal election when we can try to throw out some of this council. For supporters of LRT, the plan should now be to organize and get enough resources together to effectively campaign on behalf of truly pro-transit candidates in a year and a half. That's not far off, and it's silly to waste emotional energy hoping that the current officials will smarten up at some point between now and then.

[durandy]

Originally Posted by HillStreetBlues

"the signal from this council is they have no appetite for cramming new taxes down the throats of Hamilton residents."

Sigh. I hate to see language like that in a "news" article. In what respect would a toll on the Linc or Red Hill be a tax? A toll is a toll. I don't like taxes any more than most, and really question councillors' supposed "efforts to keep a lid on local taxes." But revenue tools that charge actual users of a piecee of infrastructure a proportion of the actual costs to operate them are not taxes, and we shouldn't allow council or anyone else to mistakenly frame them as such.

We're not going to get anywhere with this one until the next municipal election when we can try to throw out some of this council. For supporters of LRT, the plan should now be to organize and get enough resources together to effectively campaign on behalf of truly pro-transit candidates in a year and a half. That's not far off, and it's silly to waste emotional energy hoping that the current officials will smarten up at some point between now and then.

If there really are enough LRT supporters out there they should be banding together to toss out the NDP stronghold in this city, who cares about what a bunch of pothole fillers like Merulla complain about.

[Dr Awesomesauce]

^I can't help but think the winds of change are starting to blow already.

[thistleclub]

NDP won’t support Ontario budget
(Hamilton Spectator, Maria Babbage, May 3 2013)

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said Friday she can’t support the budget unless there are changes to make the government more accountable for things like the $585 million spent to cancel gas plants to save Liberal seats in Oakville and Mississauga where local citizens lobbied for cancellation.

“If we don’t think the budget’s going to deliver for people, we can’t support it,” Horwath said....

Horwath also complained the Liberals adopted the weakest idea of the many so-called revenue tools that could be used to fund public transit with their budget proposal to allow drivers without passengers pay a premium to use car pool lanes.

“You’re telling people who are trying to do the right thing by car pooling that they might get squeezed out by those who can pay to drive in those lanes,” said Horwath.

“The last thing I think Ontarians want is another Lexus lane boondoggle.”

[realcity]

I guess that $811 million figure is in today's dollars not in 2030 when it gets built

[Jon Dalton]

Sigh. I hate to see language like that in a "news" article. In what respect would a toll on the Linc or Red Hill be a tax? A toll is a toll. I don't like taxes any more than most, and really question councillors' supposed "efforts to keep a lid on local taxes." But revenue tools that charge actual users of a piecee of infrastructure a proportion of the actual costs to operate them are not taxes, and we shouldn't allow council or anyone else to mistakenly frame them as such.

Right. It's not a new tax, it's a reduction in subsidies.

[thistleclub]

Glen Murray muddies Metrolinx transit plan for Toronto, Hamilton: Hume
(Toronto Star, Christopher Hume, May 3 2013)

The first thing you need to know about Ontario Transportation Minister Glen Murray is that he’s a talker.

The second thing to understand is that he’s big on cities. Indeed, Murray first came to national prominence because, as mayor of Winnipeg, he would speak often and openly about the importance of Toronto to that city and the province of which it is capital, Manitoba.

That may not have endeared him to Winnipeggers, but it made him a popular guy here in the centre of the universe.

Now the two-term MPP from downtown Toronto and senior provincial transportation official has committed the cardinal political sin of telling the media what he really thinks, in this case, about the province’s much-parsed transit plan, The Big Move.

Speaking to a reporter Wednesday, Murray questioned the scheme’s overall lack of connectivity and wondered aloud about how well it serves regional transit needs.

His points, especially the connectivity part, are valid. But what Murray apparently forgot is that transit plans for the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area are more about moving politicians than passengers.

Murray’s remarks fly in the face of the endless discussion and compromise that got The Big Move to where it is today. The realities with which Metrolinx has to deal are more political than physical or economic. The provincial transportation agency must negotiate a landscape shaped by municipal rivalries, civic jealousies and voter resentment. It is an inhospitable topography on which many such plans have foundered.

In an ideal world of political enlightenment and bottomless budgets, the GTHA would be seamlessly serviced by a transit network that connected one part of the region to another.

Alas, such is not the case.

One day later, the result of his outburst is a minister in full retreat. “We’re not revisiting the projects or revisiting the plan,” Murray told the Star Thursday. “The Big Move is foundational to reducing congestion and increasing mobility. Once we build the 15 projects, we’ve got to think about connecting them better. We’ve got to make sure we’re optimizing the projects. I’ve led a municipal government; I’m very good at getting things done.”

Sadly, Murray’s good intentions are the stuff with which the road to decent transit, like the one to hell, is paved. The minister’s timing couldn’t have been worse. Just weeks before Metrolinx releases its menu of revenue-raising options, he has introduced an element of uncertainty into the process, which this transit-starved region needs like a hole in the head.


Shades of March 8's mixed messaging.

[thistleclub]

Unease over LRT funding
(Hamilton Spectator, Andrew Dreschel, May 13 2013)

Russ Powers of Dundas has become the first city councillor to formally bail on the $811 million LRT project.

Powers says his support has "shifted" on the basis of Hamilton's ability to pay.

"From an affordability standpoint, I don't think we can afford LRT."

Powers jumped ship at the last council meeting while the rest of his colleagues voted to reaffirm their support and directed Mayor Bob Bratina to toe the line on LRT for King Street.

Whether his defection is premature or the shape of things to come in Hamilton remains to be seen.

But there's no question Tom Jackson keeps looking for assurances that there's still an "exit ramp" available.

And Chad Collins has signalled he's not prepared to offer "blind support."

All this underlines growing uncertainty about how the proposed project will be funded and by whom.

In other words, what will Hamiltonians be on the hook for and for how long?

That's the $811 million question. Or maybe the $34 billion question.

Hamilton is asking for 100 per cent funding from the province with no strings attached in the form of new taxes, fees or levies.

The province says it can't afford that deal, that it needs to create new revenue tools to finance 15 transit projects in the Greater Toronto Hamilton Area costing $34 billion, which includes a light rail line from McMaster to Eastgate.

On June 1, Metrolinx, the provincial transportation agency, is giving the province its recommendations on which funding tools to use.

But after that, answers to some key questions disappear into a thickening mizzle.

We don't know what the provincial government will do with the recommendations or how long it will take to make a decision.

Premier Kathleen Wynne is a strong advocate of new revenue streams to tame the GTHA's economically debilitating congestion and grow the regional transit network.

But whatever new taxes and fees are imposed, it's not clear how they'll be rolled out.

That brings us back to Hamilton.

Will Hamiltonians be expected to contribute to the entire $34 billion package of projects or just the portion that impacts this city?

To put it another way, once we've helped pay for either a $811-million LRT system or a $265-million bus rapid transit (BRT) system, will Hamiltonians still be taxed to pay for projects in Toronto, Brampton, Mississauga, Oshawa etc.?

"That's not clear," says Hamilton city manager Chris Murray.

"It's not clear what we're getting, it's not clear whether the fund, however it's structured, will pay for the things that we receive or be put into the broader pot and pay for the other 14 items, including ours that are on the list of the next round of big investments."

Bruce McCuaig, president and CEO of Metrolinx, was unavailable.


Elsewhere...

Toronto City Council bungles the transit file
(Toronto Star, May 12 2013)

So much for an “adult conversation” on transit funding. Toronto City Council looked more like an unruly kindergarten class playing a chaotic game of dodge ball this past week than leaders discussing the fate of transportation for decades to come.

When it was over, after two days of incoherent debate, council achieved nothing apart from exposing its own inadequacy in handling complex transit files. Of course that didn’t stop Mayor Rob Ford from declaring this debacle “one of the greatest days in Toronto’s history.”

Council now stands revealed as so feckless and inept in considering the future of Greater Toronto transit that its views can safely be ignored by provincial decision-makers....

The province, once laughter fades, is likely to respond the way Metrolinx did to councillors’ ill-judged call to convert the Scarborough RT line into a subway. The agency made it clear that won’t be happening.

Two factors account for this dysfunction. First, by this time next year an election will be underway. With that contest looming, most councillors didn’t want to be on record supporting any sort of tax or toll, preferring instead to call for subways to their particular ward regardless of how absurd the option. Second, without a strong mayor guiding debate along productive channels discussion easily descended into anarchy.

Sadly, Toronto has forfeited standing in a crucial debate on transit expansion and how best to pay for it. The real misfortune here isn’t that a bunch of feckless councillors abdicated their responsibilities. It’s that the city they represent will be denied its full voice in shaping our common transit future.

[HillStreetBlues]

I think that it is very possible that Powers comes to question this decision. Even if no one notices how ridiculous it is to say that something can't be afforded before we even know the price tag (and while most are still saying that we want it for free), no matter how things pan out, it might not be a popular thing to have been the first councillor to formally give up on LRT.

Dundas is a well-educated community with (this is only my opinion) a lot of urban-focused residents interested in sensible city building. A number of them would actually use LRT, so it's not as though this guy is representing Binbrookers who may well never even see it (even though they will benefit in indirect ways). How many students and professors live in Dundas who would like to live in a city with better transit?

I can say from experience that, in Kitchener-Waterloo, the 2010 municipal election was for many people about LRT (whether they were in favour of it or opposed to it). Other issues were on people's minds, of course, and it would be an overstatement to say that the election was a referendum on LRT, but it was one of the first questions posed to council candidates. This was when it was already known that the Region would be paying up to $300 million for the system, when commitments were in place from the provincial and federal governments.

How might Powers be vulnerable in 2014 if the Hamilton Light Rail Initiative or a group like it can successfully make LRT a big election issue? Would it really be a good situation to be running for re-election in a well-educated, partly urban riding after you were the first councillor to say that you are not interested, even if it came at no cost?

[Dr Awesomesauce]

I don't know, Russ Powers is an institution in Dundas politics. He was a member of Town Council a million years ago and served with the Region as well. He also did a term as MP before that right-wing Christian took over. Anyway, people get used to ticking the same box every election - it's a tough habit to break. Look at Bernie Morelli for God's sake. A more inappropriate representative of Ward 3 I can not imagine and yet election after election he finds himself at City Hall. Some things are just inexplicable...not unlike Whitehead's hair.