Editor, The News:
Re: Reasons to vote No (Letters, April 10).
Florence L. Nicholson wrote to say TransLink should be a provincial responsibility.
Why should someone in, say, Hope be paying taxes so that people in the Metro region can have a good transportation system?
You can buy a house in Hope for $200,000. The same house would cost at least $500,000 in Maple Ridge.
One of the reasons is in Maple Ridge public transportation is available.
If you have a home near SkyTrain, the home is worth even more.
The high value of homes in Metro is based largely due to the benefits of having things like good transportation and not having to drive miles to the town core.
The cost of transportation should be paid by those benefiting from it. It should actually be a property tax based on per cent of home value since those with highest value homes benefit the most.
Should the province also pay your home? It is easy to claim others should pay, but the responsibility should be those who benefit or use.
Dan Banov
Maple Ridge