Should the taxpayers be allowed to vote on tax increases?

The Mayors Council representing all the metro area's of the lower mainland of B.C. Is looking to raise tax revenue to finance a $7.5 billion transit plan. They are proposing to raise the BC Provincial Sales Tax by half a per cent to fund this project. Nothing unusual government proposing to raise taxes and spend a pile of money.
What is out of the norm is they proposing to give the taxpayers the opportunity to vote on this tax increase. That means they will have to go out and sell the justification to the public for this tax increase. The proposal is to hold a referendum in the spring.


This raises many questions:
How far do you go with referendums? Should the taxpayers be allowed to vote on tax increases? Should referendum be for "one off" tax increases or for all tax increases? Should it be only for tax increases above a certain amount (more than the cost of living)? etc etc.

Our neighbors to the west are having quite a debate on this issue.

PST hike of 0.5% proposed for Metro Vancouver transit referendum

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/pst-hike-of-0-5-proposed-for-metro-vancouver-transit-referendum-1.2870043