Taxpayers in British Columbia are getting a reputation for not allowing themselves to be pushed around.

Several years ago, for example, former premier Gordon Campbell foolishly broke an election promise that he wouldn’t harmonize the provincial and federal sales taxes. His blatant about-face immediately after re-election sparked an explosive taxpayer revolt and, in a subsequent referendum, taxpayers killed his newly harmonized sales tax and re-established the provincial sales tax (PST).

Now, that anti-tax wrath has resurfaced. This time, the backdrop is Metro Vancouver, the partnership of 24 municipalities and electoral authorities that provides about 2.5 million people with utility services such as water and sewer.

Regional transportation, however, is the sole responsibility of TransLink, a stand-alone authority created by Victoria in 2007 to oversee planning, financing and management of all of Metro Van’s public transit.

Under Victoria’s orders, Metro Vancouver taxpayers are being asked to approve a “congestion improvement tax” that would amount to a 0.5% increase in the PST just for the Metro Vancouver region. This would raise an estimated $250 million annually to help fund a 10-year, $7.5-billion package of transit upgrades.

The estimated cost per household for the increased PST option is $125-$130 annually. If the late March plebiscite fails, then Metro Vancouver may have to hike property taxes yet again to foot the transit bill.

But the obvious need for transit improvements – another million residents are expected in Metro Vancouver by 2040 – has been trumped by public scorn over TransLink’s existing services.

Not only has the service failed to meet public-transit needs, especially in the suburbs, but TransLink has also shown incredible incompetence in the process. For example, TransLink has blown $194 million to date on a Compass Card program to stop Skytrain turnstile fare cheaters, a program that still isn’t working.

Then, there are TransLink’s excessive executive salaries. Recently removed CEO Ian Jarvis was earning a salary and bonus that last year totalled $468,000. According to local media reports, that’s $150,000 more than his counterpart in Toronto, $171,000 more than his Montreal counterpart and $100,000 more than the CEO of New York’s massive Metro Transportation Authority.

The unelected TransLink directors, who always meet in secret, were so fearful that public backlash against TransLink would kill the plebiscite that they removed Jarvis from the CEO job in mid-February.

No, he wasn’t fired. He’ll remain on the payroll as an “advisor” at a full salary of $39,000 per month until his contract expires in June 2016. The interim CEO gets $35,000 per month while the search for a new permanent replacement is held.

In other words, TransLink now will pay two CEO salaries until Jarvis’s contract expires a year and a half from now.

Add to that the fact that regional commuters are fuming over the incompetent manner in which TransLink responded to several major rush-hour failures on the Skytrain last summer, with some marooned passengers walking to nearby stations along the high-voltage, elevated guideway.

It’s no wonder taxpayers don’t want to give TransLink any more money.

© 2015 Investment Executive. All rights reserved.