Phew! We’re getting off easy, Toronto.

Facing a controversial list of “funding tools” to cover a $50-billion transit bill, residents could avoid most of them, including road tolls, parking fees and property tax hikes, under recommendations from a provincial transit panel released Thursday.

The panel, established by Premier Kathleen Wynne to advise the government, is recommending Ontario adopt three tools to pay for Metrolinx’s Big Move transit plan:

An initial 3-cent hike in gas tax, with a penny added each year to a maximum 10 cents a litre;

A half a per cent increase in Ontario’s general corporate income tax rate;

Provincial contribution of approximately $80 million a year from the harmonized sales tax (HST). In essence, the higher gas and corporate income taxes would generate an extra $80 million in HST, and the panel recommends the province divert that windfall to the transit fund.

(Another option would see the gas tax hike capped at 5 cents but bolstered by a 0.5 per cent hike in sales tax.)

In general, the measures would cost the average resident an extra $80 to $155 to start, rising to between $260 and $300.

The measures would be implemented province-wide, but money generated in Timmins would stay in Timmins, not be used in the GTA and Hamilton (GTAH).

The panel further recommends that the province enact legislation to set aside the new revenues — just under $2 billion in the GTAH — in a special fund dedicated to transit.

All told, this is as good as it gets. The tools are simple, doable, spread the pain around and set us on a path of sustainable funding.

The plan also avoids the more politically toxic options that might be unpalatable to a government, especially the minority provincial Liberals.

Still, the ideas will become a political football in any upcoming provincial election. As such, the proposals may be doomed to the dustbin.

If that happens, all we are doing is delaying the inevitable. And when the Toronto region finally confronts the monstrous traffic problems approaching, the costs will be higher and the options more constrained.

Chaired by Anne Golden, the 13-member panel addressed several growing concerns among residents, who are increasingly fed up with encroaching congestion and the region’s inability to address it quickly and resolutely.

While polls show residents are warming to the idea that they will have to pay more in taxes and fees to avoid a transportation nightmare, they don’t trust their politicians to use the money wisely and put it toward better transit, not general revenue.

Some think transit money can be found through savings — a claim Golden attacks with vigour, citing Ontario’s per capita spending, the lowest among provinces. A study by economist Don Drummond also discredits that notion.

Golden, who’s been studying GTA governance and its economy for decades, told a news conference that 2.5 million additional people and one million cars are coming to the Toronto region over the next 18 years. Average commuting times will increase by 32 minutes per day, if no new measures are adopted.

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The panel critiques each of the numerous funding options, showing how its members arrived at their choices. Some are arguable. But the choice of gasoline tax as the primary revenue tool is a solid one.

In the past 10 years, gas prices have fluctuated between 60 cents per litre and $1.40, settling now at just under $1.30 per litre. Ontario’s gas tax has remained at 14.7 cents per litre since 1992. When you add excise taxes and all other fees on gas and fuel, a Vancouver resident pays 50 cents per litre in gas taxes — with 17 cents going to Vancouver transit. GTA residents pay 39 cents in comparison, none of it earmarked for GTA infrastructure.

Payroll taxes increase labour costs and, as such, hurt job creation. A parking levy (at least using current methods) “is complex to administer and has an adverse impact on small retailers,” the panel said.

And road tolls should be adopted only after major improvements are completed, the panel said, giving motorists a viable option.

Even with this practical, workable funding plan, the Toronto region faces an uncertain transit future — clouded by partisan politics with a tried and true history of delays, confusion and missteps.

More at thestar.com:

Ontario transit funding plan could cost drivers $260 per year

Time has come for truth-based transit in the GTA: Hume

Is Metrolinx killing our transit dreams?: James

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