THE Napthine Government sensationally considered increasing tolls on CityLink and East Link, and introducing tolls on the Eastern Freeway and Tullamarine Freeway, in order to make the $6.8 billion East West Link financially viable.
But don’t forget you’ve now got engineers suggesting the new Victorian Andrews government should toll the 50 rail overpasses Labor will be constructing in lieu of the East West Link.
So, both sides are locked into this tolling mentality.
What forward thinking our predecessors had in capturing some of the uplift in land values that capital works provided to land owners! Although our forebears understood and accepted the principle, politicians of all persuasions now run scared of capturing part of the windfall gains property owners receive from infrastructure. It’s apparently too difficult to re-educate people in order to resurrect this excellent idea.
It seems escalating property values are sacrosanct. User-pays tolls–not beneficiary pays–must apply, everywhere.
And, with these and other anti-productive taxes, we wonder why world economies are imploding. Really?