The Editor,
Re: "Hepner says 'Yes' vote is simply 'common sense,'" the Now, Feb. 17.
I am pretty compliant when it comes to paying my taxes. I don't mind paying tolls for the two safe and beautiful new bridges we now have to travel over on our way to Maple Ridge and Coquitlam.
I will even reluctantly pay the additional new tax on our basement suite for living with my daughter, even though there are only six people in total living in this house. (No, antisuite naysayers, we are not all monster houses.)
However, I will draw the line when I hear of the blatant waste of taxpayers' dollars being spent in support of the referendum for a new PST tax. I am totally dismayed by the contempt Surrey Mayor Linda Hepner shows Surrey residents by thinking she has the mandate to inundate her constituents with new taxes without first looking at budget restraints and cost effective measures that could be made within the glass tower she was appointed to.
First, the PST is not an equitable tax measure as Hepner has suggested, since many families commuting for work over the Golden Ears and Port Mann bridges from the Surrey, Langley, Maple Ridge and Aldergrove areas are already paying the bridge toll taxes which have put a huge strain on their budget. These families don't realistically have the option of other bridges or SkyTrain.
Hepner and the "Yes" followers now think that these families should also pay for everyone else's commute.What kind of nonsense is this? Aren't these families already sacrificing enough through increased property tax increases, bridge tolls and the transit taxes already in place for gas and hydro?
If the mayors and the TransLink board sincerely want our votes, they should take off their blinders and ante-up a 20-per-cent wage reduction and show us some ethics and transparency. It might go a long way in helping us to forget the extravagant spending and ludicrous blundering of our hardearned taxpayer dollars.
And then again, maybe not.
Louisa Turmel, Cloverdale