Premier Kathleen Wynne has taken increases to the gasoline tax and HST off the table but road tolls are very much in play as the minority Liberals search for ways to pay for transit.

While Wynne also insisted her government wouldn’t raise income taxes on middle-income earners, her office refused to say what income threshold that constitutes.

That suggests personal income taxes could be going up for some Ontarians.

It would be the first income tax hike since 2012 when then premier Dalton McGuinty imposed a 2 per cent surtax on 23,000 people earning $500,000 and up to win NDP support for the budget that year.

That surtax brings in $470 million annually, but lowering the threshold to $200,000 or $300,000 would bring in a lot more to the treasury if the government chooses to go in that direction.

“Our budget will move forward on our visions for a seamless and integrated and improved transit and transportation network — (and) our transit plan will not include increases in the gas tax, HST or income taxes on middle income families or individuals,” Wynne told reporters Thursday.

“We are taking those potential revenue tools off the table,” the premier said, but refused to specify what other taxes, tolls and fees would be raised for Metrolinx's $50 billion Big Move plan for the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA).

But Wynne said “make no mistake” that the spring budget will include ways to finance the massive transit project. She added that tolls for high occupancy lanes are in the mix.

“I am the premier who is dedicated to creating that revenue stream,” she said while visiting a Toronto family.

“It takes time to look at all those things and figure out what the balance is — and we will be introducing the whole plan as a piece in the budget.”

Wynne accused the opposition Tories and New Democrats of mischief by insisting that the Liberal government planned to hike the gas tax and HST.

“I had said all along that funding has to be fair,” she said, adding “I am not going to ask the people in North Bay to pay for transit in the GTA . . . that has never been part of our plan.”

Last year, Anne Golden, the chair of a blue-ribbon panel tasked by the province to come up with ways to raise money for the Big Move.

The panel recommended one of two tax combinations:

A three-cent gasoline tax hike in 2015, rising to 10 cents in 2020, or

A three-cent gas tax, rising to five cents, combined with a 0.5 per cent HST hike.

Tory MPP Vic Fedeli (Nipissing) said Wynne simply can’t be believed when it comes to promising not to raise taxes.

“The Liberal tax-and-spend record of the last decade is quite clear. They promise one thing as an election approaches, then do the opposite afterwards — the Health Premium tax is a prime example,” said Fedeli, referring to the health tax imposed by McGuinty in 2004 after promising repeatedly in the 2003 election campaign he wouldn’t raise taxes.

“This is a pre-election mirage intended solely to get the Liberals past the next vote.”

Fedeli noted that Wynne’s pledging not to raise taxes to fund Toronto transit flies in the face of the advice of her own hand-picked transit panel.

NDP MPP Jagmeet Singh (Bramalea—Gore—Malton) accused Wynne of “scrambling to distance herself from her own policies because she knows families will not support them and is worried about her own job.”

“The Liberals promised not to introduce the HST, then introduced the HST. They promised to reduce hydro rates, then hiked hydro rates. They promised to reduce auto insurance rates, then rates went up. I think a lot of people will take this latest promise with a huge the grain of salt,” he stated.

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Metrolinx issued a statement saying the Big Move is needed to tackle gridlock.

“This infrastructure is needed to provide a high quality of life, address the lengthy commute times families already face and improve our economic competitiveness and productivity.”

With files from Robert Benzie

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