Wednesday, June 18, 2014
Richmond Review · Page 9
letters
Look for these flyers in
Taxing questions of transit
New pool should have ramp, railings Editor: I am a handicapped 91-year-old senior and a frequent user of the Minoru complex. With the rapidly growing population of seniors in Richmond as well as the needs of younger people with physical disabilities to be considered, I wish to strongly advocate for a dedicated smaller pool with an entry ramp and bars all around its edges to accommodate Richmond residents with special needs. Water exercise is often the very best type of physical activity for people such as myself and a specially designed pool with its own lifeguard is a much needed component of the new pool complex. I am currently medically required to travel twice weekly by HandyDART to George Pearson Centre for a one-hour aqua size program. This entails a five-hour, very tiring day. Richmond needs an equivalent facility for people such as myself. Shirley Brown Richmond
Editor: I am hearing more about the mobility tax to support BC Transit. From looking at my property tax and guessing how much transit siphons off every litre of gasoline purchased I believe that transit is one of the biggest single tax items in most households. This from an organization that does not answer to the taxpayer, we have no way of directly questioning transit on how it spends our money. Of course now they want to tax folks based on how much they drive. The new system would involve buying equipment to detect and record the passing of motor vehicles, buying equipment and hiring personnel to process the fees and of course mail out the bills. The other way to tax folks based on how much they use their cars is to increase the tax on a litre of fuel. The measuring system is already in use at the pumps, the tax system is already in place
and being used so there is nothing to buy. Every penny charged goes to the tax people. The more you drive the more fuel you buy. Seems simple and cost effective. Here is the problem with single source tax—the taxpayer can easily see how much money is going to transit! By creating a different system we do not see the price of gas go up it is just another hand in our pocket from a different angle. The problem is that we first have to pay for the new high tech system to collect the tax. In the long run we will pay more—just so we don’t realize how much we are really paying. I do not want to see the price of fuel go up; I do want to see transit accountable for the money they take from us. I do not want to pay for the wool that is being pulled over my eyes! Scott Stewart Richmond
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