If each working person pays €100/yr (tax deductible) and gets free transport, this means that 200,000 workers pay €20,000,000/yr. This should go quite a long way to provide free public transport. Tourists should be charged, say, €20, and be eligible for the same free service. If Malta receives 2,000,000 tourists a year, this potentially means another €40,000,000 for this idea to take shape. Of course, the service needs to be up to scratch. Drivers caught abusing should be fired.
Healthcare and education are 'free' to the individual because they are often otherwise unaffordable basic rights. Yet an unfortunate side effect is that users lose some of their right to demand more of the system. When I voice complaints about University, I'm told I "should be grateful." Public transport is affordable to everyone. Let the individual pay 0.75c for a bus ride and have a transit system with an incentive to succeed: more riders = more revenue, rather than more burden.
This content is created by the open source Your Priorities citizen engagement platform designed by the non profit Citizens Foundation