Tax cuts for the rich and for corporations but not for us?

Rosario Marchese —

My position is clear: It’s not fair to cut taxes for corporations and the wealthy, while asking everybody else to pay more. Of course, the government doesn’t want to frame its “transit revenue tool” scheme this way. The government wants people to focus solely on one budget item and ignore two decades of trickle-down tax policy that has systematically shifted the province’s overall tax burden away from corporations and the wealthy onto everybody else.

If the government is desperate for new revenues, then why is it planning massive tax cuts that will cost about $3 billion a year? These include a commitment to open HST loopholes for corporations (cost: about $1.3 billion a year), reducing the corporate income tax rate even lower (cost: about $1.1 billion a year) and cancelling the Fairness Tax on people earning more than half a million dollars a year (cost: about $500 million a year).

Money raised for transit should be spent on transit, not on more huge tax cuts for corporations and the One Percent.

I am 100% committed to building a comprehensive regional transit network, and obviously we need a reliable and dedicated revenue stream to pay for it. I support fair and progressive revenue tools. I do not support more flat taxes and user fees.

For more information on my revenue priorities, please see: Fair funding for transit: put progressive revenue tools & corporate taxes back on the table