Fast talk, costly ad push won’t sell transit tax
Idoubt even the guy who sold all those Chop-O-Matic and Ronco Pocket Fisherman gadgets on late-night TV could sell Metro Vancouver residents on a new sales tax.
Sorry, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, but you are no Billy Mays (Google him if you don’t know.)
Robertson has just been named lead pitchman for the Yes campaign, which is seeking a half-percentagepoint increase in the provincial sales tax within Metro Vancouver.
The Congestion Improvement Tax, as it’s officially known, would raise $250 million a year for transit, road and bridge improvements. It will be put to a region-wide mail-in plebiscite vote this spring.
A lot of people may like Robertson, who just won his third term as mayor. But a lot of people hate TransLink much more. And getting people to fork over more money to TransLink is like asking them to put said money into one of those Chop-O-Matics.
Metro’s messed-up transit corporation has a rotten reputation with the public. From overpaid executives to the bungled Compass Card system, there’s something for everyone to hate about TransLink.
That’s why the Yes camp is planning to launch an expensive ad blitz to convince Metro voters that the tax hike will be good for them.
The Yes side’s “public education campaign” is expected to highlight the costs of traffic gridlock and transit shortfalls. It will argue the modest tax hike will improve everyone’s lives. But there’s one problem. Guess who’s going to pay for the advertising blitz. Apparently, TransLink will pay for at least a chunk of a campaign that could cost upward of $4 million. The No forces are all over that. “TransLink is trying to buy votes with taxpayers’ money,” Jordan Bateman, spokesman for the No campaign, fumed Monday.
“Isn’t it amazing how TransLink, while constantly complaining they’re broke, can spend $4 million to get a Yes vote?” Bateman asked.
“If this is such a great plan, why can’t the Yes campaign win it on their own merits and by fundraising from someone other than taxpayers? It’s just another piece of TransLink’s wasteful spending.”
Bateman’s group filed a complaint Monday with B.C.’s Auditor General for Local Government, a new office created by Premier Christy Clark.
But deputy auditor general Mark Tatchell told me the office does not have jurisdiction to do anything about TransLink, since it’s not a local government.
I suspect Bateman knew darn well his complaint to the new office would go nowhere. But he also knows darn well that any occasion to rub salt in TransLink’s festering wounds will further hurt the Yes side in this plebiscite.
As for TransLink, I tried several times Monday to get a fresh comment from them, without success by deadline. Just another example of how the Yes side is blowing it — big time.