ON NDP Stance on Funding for Public Transit
The other day, Martin Regg Cohn wrote a horribly twisted piece of anti-NDP propaganda in the Toronto Star.
Andrea Horwath and the ON NDP are not changing their stance on any of this. They are still
looking at the root cause of the money problems for public transit -
the provincial and federal government increasingly cutting corporate
taxes and making up the loss of revenue on the backs of everyone else.
Public transit used to be funded by the province and the feds. That made
sense. Then this funding was removed to pay for corporate tax cuts. The
NDP is saying lets get back to sensible taxation of the corporations
and sensible funding of large projects (like public transit).
Continuing with the aim of constantly giving to the rich and
corporations, and, at the same time, taking more and more from the rest
of us, is a plan that cannot continue (unsustainable) and a plan that is
very unfair. It is also a plan of the corporate parties (Liberals and
Cons). It is precisely because of this plan that our public transit is
suffering and begging for money. This plan is why money has been pulled
out from under public transit over the years by the provincial and
federal governments. When the Chretien-Martin government massively cut
transfers to the provinces, the provinces then began to massively cut
programs and funding in the provinces (remember what Harris did in
Ontario, including removal of provincial funding from public transit?). And
besides these cuts, the Ontario governments have continued to reduce
their funds by steadily decreasing corporate taxes to a ridiculously low
amount - and STILL plan to continue cutting this revenue source for the
province. The end result is that many important things go underfunded
and the funds now have to come from those who can least afford to pay.
Horwath and the ON NDP want to reverse this trend and stop trying to
force those least able to pay, to pay for everything. I support this
stand by the ON NDP.
They are not so much against new funding sources for transit, but FOR old sensible funding sources for transit.
Posted by Thor at 11:51
Labels: Andrea Horwath, NDP, Ontario NDP
1 comment:
Fixing a few corporate tax loopholes isn't going to cover the 2 billion per year needed to pay for transit expansion. Transit blogger and unabashed NDP supporter Steve Munro has also criticized her for not presenting a practical plan.
Raising corporate tax rates could work, but what she proposed so far won't cover the cost.
I guess she is waiting to the election to present her plan.
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