The perpetual morass that is TransLink planning is again veering off the rails thanks to the province.
Provincial transportation ministers love to blame local mayors for not being able to get their acts together and agree on TransLink priorities.
But the fact is, whenever the mayors have agreed, the province has no problem wading in and overruling them.
Now with the province and Metro mayors unable to agree on how to pay for transit in the future, the province is insisting on a referendum -although what it will ask, nobody yet knows.
North Vancouver District Mayor Richard Walton, chair of the mayors council, has called it 'terribly thought-out legislation.' We'd say 'thought-out' is being overly charitable.
The referendum is likely doomed to fail. Most people reflexively feel they pay too many taxes (a thought that is absent when they have to cross a bridge or turn on their taps.) Asking people if they'd like to pay more has predictable results.
The history of asking people to vote on cherry-picked initiatives isn't one rife with success.
California has been driven to the brink of bankruptcy and inability to function by what's been deemed 'ballot-box budgeting.' The basic problem remains that transit is expensive. It costs a lot of money and nobody wants to wear that.
Particularly the province, in whose jurisdiction the most sensible solutions lie.
That will likely continue to be the case, regardless of what does or doesn't get asked on the ballot in November.
