Does the transit tax break go anywhere?

Among the transparent vote-buying goodies in this week's Conservative budget is a 15.5% tax credit for transit riders who buy a monthly pass. In addition, the government pledged $1.3 billion for public transit infrastructure.

However, the CPC plan to get public transit moving has a couple of bumps in the road. First of all, the money for the tax credit is being siphoned from existing climate change programs. Secondly, $1.3 billion is not a lot of money to share around every public transit system in the country, especially when Vancouver's Translink and the Toronto Transit Commission have major expansion projects underway.

For the tax credit to work, the infrastructure credit has to exceed projected increases in ridership, including those not precipitated by a tax credit on monthly passes. Otherwise, the vicious circle of fare increases and service cuts will once again leave transit users wanting to get off.