Gordon Chong’s 188-page report on ways to finance a Sheppard subway extension suggests a variety of revenue-generating tools. Almost all are contradictory to Mayor Rob Ford’s low-tax, car-friendly philosophy.
The report says it’s “highly unlikely” the city will implement all of the revenue tools. (All estimates are over 50 years.)
Tax increment financing: This is a method municipalities use to leverage the future lift in property value that comes from building transit or other amenities in a particular area. The city borrows against future tax windfalls from subway-area properties whose value increases. The report says such financing could produce up to $6 billion along the Sheppard-Scarborough-Eglinton corridors in a “high-growth scenario.”
Development charges: The city levies development charges for residential buildings at the building permit stage, but not industrial buildings. Changing the policy to apply charges to non-residential development could bring in $2.87 billion.
City-owned development revenues: The average estimate for the land value of city-owned properties in the Sheppard and Eglinton corridors is $207 million.
Road pricing: Revenues could also come from charging drivers, such as zone-based tolls, expressway tolls, tolls charged to solo drivers who want to use car pool lanes, and vehicle-kilometre-travelled fees. Those could bring in anywhere from $2 billion for HOV tolls to $153.6 billion from vehicle-kilometre-travelled fees. Overall, conservative estimates for tolls total $93 billion; aggressive estimates total $230 billion.
Parking fees: The report says charging more for parking could generate as much as $28.9 billion. A parking-space levy could generate as much as $19.7 billion; a parking sales tax would generate anywhere from $2.3 billion to $9.2 billion, it says.
Taxes: New taxes, such as a regional sales tax, gas tax, passenger vehicle tax or special payroll tax could also raise money ‘ ranging from $700 million from the vehicle tax to $59.1 billion from a payroll tax. Conservative estimates for all four taxes total $80 billion; aggressive estimates add up to twice that amount.
