"The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest amount of feathers with the least possible amount of hissing." Mayors forgot that axiom last year when they spent millions trying to convince taxpayers to hand over a new sales tax to TransLink -- an agency widely reviled for its wasteful spending.

With news last week that all but one of Metro Vancouver's mayors have given a firm thumbs down to the B.C. government's proposal for a 10-lane, three-kilometre bridge to replace the George Massey Tunnel, it's a good opportunity to take a step back and give this idea more than a quick once-over.

The long-awaited BC Transit provincial review went public earlier this month. To no one's surprise, the audit found several ways BC Transit has been wasting your tax money, and how poor they are at managing the millions of dollars of assets with which we entrust them.

The road pricing debate has taken two forms in the Lower Mainland, both of which should worry taxpayers. The first idea, suggested by Delta Mayor Lois Jackson and former Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts, is to put a $1 toll on every bridge in the region. However, the math simply doesn't work.

Peter Fassbender hasn't addressed a core concern for hundreds of thousands of taxpayers, expressed during the campaign that sent the TransLink sales tax down to landslide defeat: TransLink is still broken, still lacking the public's confidence.

Lip service to local autonomy.