For smaller, urbanized Langley City, it was a yes. For larger, more rural Langley Township, it was a no.

The mayors of Metro Vancouver voted Friday on whether to adopt a new TransLink funding plan, which includes a 2¢ per litre gas tax to start in April of 2012, and possible property tax increases of up to $23 per home by 2013.

The $1.24 billion plan was opposed by Mayor Rick Green of the Township, while Mayor Peter Fassbender of Langley City voted yes.

“There were a lot more mayors that were supportive,” Fassbender said.

The weighted vote, which bases voting power on population, saw 81 points yes, 34 against. Vancouver and Surrey, the two largest cities, were both in favour, while just six communities, including the Township, Richmond, Burnaby, and Delta, voted no.

“The bottom line is, this is not the end of the road, it’s just the beginning,” said Fassbender, as he boarded a SkyTrain following the meeting.

Both he and Green, along with the other mayors, have been beating the drum for years for a permanent, new funding structure. TransLink has few funding options right now, and mayors want the provincial or federal government to give them funding certainty so they can move forward.

“They’re going to have to help us by making some serious decisions for the entire Fraser Valley,” said Green.

He says it’s not just a new cost sharing formula, but governance that has to change. Langley and other smaller communities need to get input into what Green calls a “completely dysfunctional” system.

“We need options that are cost effective and easily implemented,” said Green, who has been an advocate for local light rail.

For a wide variety of reasons, including not providing enough service to Langley Township, Green voted against the plan.

He noted that the area also needs to be a plan to connect Langley – part of the TransLink area – with Abbotsford, which is part of BC Transit’s region.

It took years of lobbying to create a bus link between Aldergrove and Abbotsford, despite the proximity of those communities.

Fassbender said the new funding will get people moving in Langley, putting more buses on the streets and making life cheaper and easier for people without cars.

Among other projects, the funding plan will pay for the operations of the new park and ride being built near 86th Avenue and 202nd Street in Willoughby. When the new Port Mann Bridge is opened, that lot will serve as the starting point for a RapidBus link from Langley to Coquitlam along the TransCanada Highway, the first time in a generation that buses will run down the highway.

TransLink has been able to get funding for building infrastructure, Fassbender said. But getting funds from the province or Ottawa to pay for bus drivers salaries, fuel, maintenance, and other ongoing costs, has been difficult.

“We have got to stop the photo ops,” Fassbender said, of the tendency of politicians to support projects where they can cut a ribbon. “We have to put infrastructure where it’s needed, and then find the money to run it.”