Funding for regional transit plan to be on fall ballot - any chance of passing?

[Vic01]

The Regional Transit Authority on Thursday voted unanimously to place a tax-increase millage before voters this fall to fund transit in Metro Detroit. The approval came after two elected officials, who initially opposed the ballot, gave their blessing.
The $4.6-billion-dollar proposal, if approved by voters, would bring bus rapid transit, a rail line between Ann Arbor and Detroit, an airport shuttle service, a regional fare card system and other service changes, and paves the way for the 20-year, 1.2-mill property tax increase to appear on the November ballot.
RTA officials lauded the vote, which came just days after elected leaders such as Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and county executives met to iron out concerns expressed by Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson and Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel. Approval of the RTA’s master plan was derailed because of concerns about governance, power to allocate future funding and more transit services for outlying areas that weren’t previously covered but would have been taxed.
“It’s a very important day, a great milestone,” said Michael Ford, the RTA’s CEO, after the vote. “We’re glad that everybody can come together and make this happen. This is critically important for this region and we’re just delighted. We’ve got a lot of work to do still and we haven’t lost sight of that as well.”
At its special meeting on Thursday, board members voted to amend their bylaws to create a funding allocation committee with a member from each of the counties represented in the RTA that include Oakland, Washtenaw, Macomb and Wayne.

In the compromise, Oakland County secured about $40 million more over two decades — from $79 million to $118 million — for its 40 communities, many in the north, that have opted out of the suburban SMART bus system. The county received assurances that transit service would be granted to more communities in the master plan, including to the disabled and elderly.
In addition, the transit authority would need one vote of approval from each county and Detroit to approve financial decisions instead of the earlier plan for a simple majority.
Both Hackel and Patterson told The Detroit News on Wednesday that while they are pleased with the changes, they are not enthusiastically supporting the millage or its campaign — a move that supporters say they can overcome.
Alma Wheeler-Smith, who expressed great reservations about the change in governance, said while she’s disappointed that Hackel and Patterson pulled what she called a power play, she believes this millage, if approved by voters, will transform the region.
“It really doesn’t matter what Brooks Patterson and Mark Hackel say in their counties,” Wheeler-Smith said. “The citizens understand that this frees a community to go to work, to leave their homes, to get to their doctor’s appointments with some convenience and ease and people will vote for that. They aren’t going to be that worried about the political shenanigans of their elected officials who at the last minute hurled a bomb to get control of a regional authority.”
Other leaders around the region praised the decision.

Warren Evans, Wayne County executive, called the vote “an important decision for the citizens of this region.”
“Our citizens will get to decide whether our communities, which make up this region, deserve a significantly improved public transportation system,” Evans said in a statement. “This is an important decision for the citizens of this region. They will have to ask themselves a question; should we join virtually every other urban area in the country in recognizing the importance of an efficient and effective public transportation system.”
Sandy Baruah, president and CEO of The Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce, said he “applauds our elected regional leaders and RTA board for achieving consensus on regional transit. This is another example of how Southeast Michigan is able to collaborate for regional progress. The Chamber is committed to working towards a ‘yes’ vote in November.”
Rip Rapson, president and CEO of the Kresge Foundation, said the decision for regional transit now rests with voters, “with implications that could be felt generations to come.”
“Whatever the electoral outcome, the policy debate around this issue has been a net positive — this conversation over transit illustrates the strong desire to rewrite our past, forge a new dynamic future and unify ourselves into a true economic and cultural region,” he said in a statement.

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/new...plan/88069950/

[Detroit]

Even though I will most likely not use it, I sure hope so. I do believe that it plays a roll in businesses relocating and people wanting to work downtown. Also, it is important for Detroiters to be able to get out to the suburbs to go to work, shop, etc. It will be all in the way they decide to sell it. I am a little bummed their isn't anything planned initially for Grand River.

[brizee]

On the one hand if you go by comments in the newspaper it'll go down in flames. On the other if you look at a younger demographic skewing social media they were roasting LBP and Hackel alive last week.

All three counties supported the DIA.

All three overwhelmingly renewed the Zoo millage this week.

They rejected the road funding measure last year. Even though I voted yes I recognized it was a pretty shit solution from a legislature too cowardly to act.

Maybe, just maybe...I've been unfair to the people of this region. Maybe it's been their leaders who have been smallminded and ugly and not actually given them a chance to show what they're made of.

I expect Detroit Washtenaw and Oakland to overwhelmingly support the measure. Macomb to squeak by. I think if there's going to be any trouble spots it's going to come from southern Wayne County because it really isn't getting thrown a bone.

And yes Grand River not being a corridor is ridiculous. Not including Fort, Jefferson and Van Dyke I could understand. But GR NEEDS to be evaluated for an upgrade ASAP.

[Detroit]

I wish there was rapid transit solution for Grand River... If there was, there is a chance I would start riding it rather than driving downtown, even if just a couple of time a week. I hate putting on all the miles on my car for it to just sit downtown for 8 hours a day not to mention wasting the money on the Premium gas... It doesn't even move during lunch.

[Jason]

imo this plan should either go all out and have a full proper system [[which is basically impossible) or just do the minimum required to have a solid starting point, because I think the political framework is the most important aspect of it.

I think in places with transit there's not as much a fight over whether it should exist, but the fight is more over where it will be expanded to because everyone recognizes its value and wants a piece of it.

[dguy4evr]

I wish there was rapid transit solution for Grand River... If there was, there is a chance I would start riding it rather than driving downtown, even if just a couple of time a week. I hate putting on all the miles on my car for it to just sit downtown for 8 hours a day not to mention wasting the money on the Premium gas... It doesn't even move during lunch.

I don't use any public transportation but will vote for it in a heartbeat. I agree, Grand River should be a part of the plan. I used to ride the Grand River bus from State and Griswold to 12th. street to go to Wilbur Wright Co Op school. Remember passing the bakery and coffee buildings on the way. By the time I got to school, I had already had my breakfast, lol!
Because of the lay of the land too many people live a long way from their workplace or would have better opportunities to find jobs outside of their areas with better public transit. Hope it passes.

[Sandhouse]

I won't even try to call this one. I wonder if any polls are being conducted?

On the "for" side, there has been a comfortable margin of support for SMART millage [[although the margin is bigger in Oakland and Macomb Counties than in Wayne, and some small units opt out in Wayne and Oakland). The supposedly tax-averse northern reaches of Oakland and Macomb aren't populous enough to swing the vote.

On the contrary side, the RTA millage is on top of the SMART millage, as well as the gasoline tax, and Detroit property and income taxes for DDOT in the City. Is there a limit to how much people will pay for transit?

Other factors make this proposal unprecedented:

The vote will be a majority in the four-county area. Will Washtenaw County buy into this plan? Is Ann Arbor itching for better connection to Ypsilanti, Metro Airport and Detroit? I'm told Ann Arbor thinks its existing transit system is sufficient. I don't know that I believe that, but I do have the impression that Ann Arborites think their city is a self-contained universe.

The BRT scheme is little understood by voters. What kind of news coverage will the plan get between now and November?

I am wondering what to make of the news from Meridian Township in suburban Lansing, where small businesses along Grand River Avenue stirred up intense opposition to a BRT scheme, so much so that even the liberal, anti-growth candidates for the township board oppose the BRT lanes in the median. And that project is not the subject of a millage vote. At least businesses along Gratiot or Woodward will understand the value of the median in making their places accessible.

This is one of the more interesting political issues in a long time.

[MikeyinBrooklyn]

I think it has a good shot at passing. Not predicting either way, but many good signs are out there. The single largest being the fact that city-suburb relations are far less hostile than in recent decades. Although not directly related to the issue, the sense that Detroit is now under competent, honest leadership makes it more palatable to suburbanites to join with city voters in creating a new transit network.

I agree with above posters about Grand River, with one caveat: a millage larger than the one being sought would frighten off taxpayers. Therefore, some projects we'd like [[BRT or something like it for Grand River) will have to wait. We need to build a nice, but basic, house. Later on, if we are liking the house and successfully making mortgage payments, we can put on additions.

[Bobl]

It will go down in flames in Macomb County, perhaps pass elsewhere. Much depends on a spectacular public relations campaign. This wil be interrsting to observe.

[dtowncitylover]

It will go down in flames in Macomb County, perhaps pass elsewhere. Much depends on a spectacular public relations campaign. This wil be interrsting to observe.

I think that's horribly pessimistic and not true. The RTA will hopefully have a good PR campaign and try to make people understand this isn't a luxury but truly a "must-have" for the region's survival.

[ndavies]

Sorry, I would be voting no. The tax rates in Wayne county and Detroit is already way too high. I think the high tax rates are a bigger deterrent to investment than the lack of regional transit is.

[Bobl]

I think that's horribly pessimistic and not true. The RTA will hopefully have a good PR campaign and try to make people understand this isn't a luxury but truly a "must-have" for the region's survival.

Yes, it is pessimistic, and I hope that I am mistaken. As I stated, a spectacular pr campaign is needed. We will soon see. As I understand it, if one county rejects, but a majority in the combined counties passes the millage, it is a done deal, in all counties.

[dtowncitylover]

Sorry, I would be voting no. The tax rates in Wayne county and Detroit is already way too high. I think the high tax rates are a bigger deterrent to investment than the lack of regional transit is.

Well, have fun in your stagnant region! Economic investment isn't going to come without infrastructure improvements and one of those is mass transit. You can't say, well I'm for mass transit but against this. If this does fail the RTA fails and there will be no major funding for our bus systems and future transit projects. DDOT and SMART are gonna keep limping on and uncoordinated, with Ann Arbor and Metro airport still disconnected from the region except by car.

Sorry, if we want to attract companies, people, and new investment and capital we need to remodel and invest in ourselves.

[professorscott]

Economic investment isn't going to come without infrastructure improvements and one of those is mass transit. You can't say, well I'm for mass transit but against this. If this does fail the RTA fails and there will be no major funding for our bus systems and future transit projects. DDOT and SMART are gonna keep limping on and uncoordinated, with Ann Arbor and Metro airport still disconnected from the region except by car.

Sorry, if we want to attract companies, people, and new investment and capital we need to remodel and invest in ourselves.

I agree with all of this, but the question is how do you convince large numbers of the electorate to get behind it. Many Detroiters [[again, I mean the region) have lived around here their whole lives, so unless they were old enough to be cognizant before World War II, they have never seen effective transit and probably doesn't know what it would look like or what it could do.

So, as others have mentioned here, a big campaign is needed, although I would style it more as education than as public relations.

[dtowncitylover]

I agree with all of this, but the question is how do you convince large numbers of the electorate to get behind it. Many Detroiters [[again, I mean the region) have lived around here their whole lives, so unless they were old enough to be cognizant before World War II, they have never seen effective transit and probably doesn't know what it would look like or what it could do.

So, as others have mentioned here, a big campaign is needed, although I would style it more as education than as public relations.

True as well. People need facts, figures, and understanding what we are going to get out of this.

I would say that many people have traveled to the major cities of the US and/or Canada. We basically say to them, if we want to become more competitive with them and attractable to top talent and businesses, we need mass transit. I don't feel like it's that hard of a sell, not at least as some posters have said.

On one Facebook group I'm a part of, another poster was against the plan but really wanted to see rail. Well, hello!!! We're not going to be closer to rail if we vote this down! We're going to take a HUGE step back!