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The Italian-speaking Canton of Ticino will soon ask voters if the carparks companies give their staff should be taxed.
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The Canton announced on Monday that more than 24,000 signatures from those supporting the proposal had been collected, enough to put the decision to a public vote on 5 June 2016.
The proposal if accepted will require companies with more than 50 staff to pay a tax of between CHF 1 and 3.5 per vehicle per day depending on the type of park.
Source: NASA
The objective of the plan is to coax people out of their cars and on to public transport to reduce air pollution. Ticino has alarmingly high air pollution. A paper published last year shows how bad the problem is across the region south of the Alps, which includes northern Italy and Ticino. The NASA image above taken in December 2005 shows this smog.
The money raised would be used to cover the cost of running public transport. The Canton’s 2016 budget contains CHF 18 million expenditure on public transport.
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