SMART Bus system’s fate in hands of voters.

[cramerro]

YES, our wells could actually go dry, if we don't vote to protect our rights.

The service SMART provides is a right protected by federal laws.

A vote of YES at this time is a forced tax increase by means of scare tactics and false propaganda to provide pay increases to those who are afraid of competition or filling up buses with fare box paying customers. Without formal well funded opposition to change this, nothing will happen except the property tax bills in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties will be just a little bit higher.

And you will have water, but will your grandchildren have water? Too bad Grandpa and Grandma were communists? because they voted YES to support taking away people's rights?

A vote of NO means NO cuts in essential service or funding and that is FACT.
I dare anyone including Mr. Hertel to prove this as not being TRUe.

I find it incredibly difficult to believe that you rely on SMART to get to/from work, yet are spending dozens of posts on this site trying to get people to vote no. The stand does NOT need to be taken on the backs of people who have no other means of transport. You approach, presented as a visionary battle of good versus evil, is incredibly short-sighted and misinformed, and will be carried on the backs of those who cannot afford a car, meaning they will lose their jobs as a result of the service stopping. This leads me to question your true motives and if you RELY on SMART or just chose to refer to your occasional use as a position of sympathy when gathering/coercing support for your "NO" vote on this site [[and I'm sure other forums). As I have done on other threads to counter your ramblings, I'll infuse some factual information. Your claim that SMART's service is Federally protected/required is incredibly misleading. Protections apply to a very small portion of those who ride smart, being those under the ADA. If you vote NO, some small amount of money from the State will likely keep flowing to SMART service area communities to aid in the provision of this very specific service. Federal law does not require anyone, be it the State, Feds, communities, counties, or McDonalds franchisees, to provide public transportation. It is NOT a right. 30,000-40,000 people ride SMART daily, and most of those will have no public transportation option if the "NO" votes prevail.

[That Great Guy]

I find it incredibly difficult to believe that you rely on SMART to get to/from work, yet are spending dozens of posts on this site trying to get people to vote no. The stand does NOT need to be taken on the backs of people who have no other means of transport. You approach, presented as a visionary battle of good versus evil, is incredibly short-sighted and misinformed, and will be carried on the backs of those who cannot afford a car, meaning they will lose their jobs as a result of the service stopping. This leads me to question your true motives and if you RELY on SMART or just chose to refer to your occasional use as a position of sympathy when gathering/coercing support for your "NO" vote on this site [[and I'm sure other forums). As I have done on other threads to counter your ramblings, I'll infuse some factual information. Your claim that SMART's service is Federally protected/required is incredibly misleading. Protections apply to a very small portion of those who ride smart, being those under the ADA. If you vote NO, some small amount of money from the State will likely keep flowing to SMART service area communities to aid in the provision of this very specific service. Federal law does not require anyone, be it the State, Feds, communities, counties, or McDonalds franchisees, to provide public transportation. It is NOT a right. 30,000-40,000 people ride SMART daily, and most of those will have no public transportation option if the "NO" votes prevail.

Thank for your post

I'm very willing to go on television and state my full name and say that even able bodied people such as myself will not lose SMART bus service should the millage fail. I have physical proof and evidence of this.

Not one single person including SMART employees will lose their job, if a well funded campaign is waged against the Transportation Riders United and SMART.

I publicly and openly challenge Mr. John Hertel and Megan Owens to a debate.

I'm not interested in getting a majority vote of NO, but instead to get the honest leadership most essential to build safe, clean and efficient public bus systems Greater Detroit's taxpayers deserve to have and keep.

There are cases where a transit tax defeat does indeed work to get more funding and better service. That is the case today for next August, unless Mr. Hertel takes my letter and findings very seriously. I'm out to help him out and know and understand exactly what needs to be done and how to do it.

If SMART comes up with a realistic plan to protect all funds in writing with all the facts, not tolerate scare tactics, stop the work of fiction then it is entirely possible we can get a man safely into downtown Detroit at 3 am in 2014. NASA got a man on the moon in 1969 and now we have much more computer power and advanced technology.

I know exactly how to get 24/7 bus service with all full buses and remove 40,000 more cars a day from the monster freeway expansions. I will and can do this and have proven documented abilities to get this done, if Mr. Hertel lets me help him out. I work as a transportation computer technician, thus know how to coordinate all the buses together to maximize our limited tax dollars and put safety first.

[Hermod]

I know exactly how to get 24/7 bus service with all full buses and remove 40,000 more cars a day from the monster freeway expansions. I will and can do this and have proven documented abilities to get this done, if Mr. Hertel lets me help him out. I work as a transportation computer technician, thus know how to coordinate all the buses together to maximize our limited tax dollars and put safety first.

Il Duce: I will make the buses run on time.

[cramerro]

Thank for your post

I'm very willing to go on television and state my full name and say that even able bodied people such as myself will not lose SMART bus service should the millage fail. I have physical proof and evidence of this.

Not one single person including SMART employees will lose their job, if a well funded campaign is waged against the Transportation Riders United and SMART.

I publicly and openly challenge Mr. John Hertel and Megan Owens to a debate.

I'm not interested in getting a majority vote of NO, but instead to get the honest leadership most essential to build safe, clean and efficient public bus systems Greater Detroit's taxpayers deserve to have and keep.

There are cases where a transit tax defeat does indeed work to get more funding and better service. That is the case today for next August, unless Mr. Hertel takes my letter and findings very seriously. I'm out to help him out and know and understand exactly what needs to be done and how to do it.

If SMART comes up with a realistic plan to protect all funds in writing with all the facts, not tolerate scare tactics, stop the work of fiction then it is entirely possible we can get a man safely into downtown Detroit at 3 am in 2014. NASA got a man on the moon in 1969 and now we have much more computer power and advanced technology.

I know exactly how to get 24/7 bus service with all full buses and remove 40,000 more cars a day from the monster freeway expansions. I will and can do this and have proven documented abilities to get this done, if Mr. Hertel lets me help him out. I work as a transportation computer technician, thus know how to coordinate all the buses together to maximize our limited tax dollars and put safety first.

You got me. I visited your website. I appreciate vigor of your angle on this problem. However, your whole case is built around [[multiple references) the idea that the Federal anti-discrimination law somehow requires a minimum level of service for public transit. This is simply not true. In fact, the "Feds" explicitly discourage any comparison of even simple service level standards between systems. Furthermore, the entire Federal Transit Administration "Formula" for distributing the lion's share of capital grants ties your share of national funding to your population, ridership, and miles of service... meaning the less you run, the less share of money you get - counter to your claims of Federal requirements for maintaining service hours/frequency. Lastly, and I have said this before, your own materials state: Section 601 -- This section states the general principle that no person in the United States shall be excluded from participation in or otherwise discriminated against on the ground of race, color, or national origin under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance. This means that WHERE service IS provided, it must be equally accessible. You can meet the intent of this statement by saying, "we run no service and it is accessible to NObody." The idea that you would encourage people to vote NO so you can test out your unproven, unsound, and un-objective interpretation of a few lines of Federal law is irresponsible and reckless.

[That Great Guy]

You got me. I visited your website. I appreciate vigor of your angle on this problem. However, your whole case is built around [[multiple references) the idea that the Federal anti-discrimination law somehow requires a minimum level of service for public transit. This is simply not true. In fact, the "Feds" explicitly discourage any comparison of even simple service level standards between systems. Furthermore, the entire Federal Transit Administration "Formula" for distributing the lion's share of capital grants ties your share of national funding to your population, ridership, and miles of service... meaning the less you run, the less share of money you get - counter to your claims of Federal requirements for maintaining service hours/frequency. Lastly, and I have said this before, your own materials state: Section 601 -- This section states the general principle that no person in the United States shall be excluded from participation in or otherwise discriminated against on the ground of race, color, or national origin under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance. This means that WHERE service IS provided, it must be equally accessible. You can meet the intent of this statement by saying, "we run no service and it is accessible to NObody." The idea that you would encourage people to vote NO so you can test out your unproven, unsound, and un-objective interpretation of a few lines of Federal law is irresponsible and reckless.

Thank you very much for your post

The tax was never meant to cover the entire operating budget.

Federal Law supersedes County and Local Tax proposals including the August vote. Alternative funds must be secured first not only for the handicapped but for all existing community transit including the large line buses and for the able bodied.

Write and ask Mr. Hertel, if you have any doubt about anything is my extensive website which does prove $400 Million was slashed from public bus service since 1995 to build HOV lanes and expand I-94 in midtown Detroit. MDOT got away with this because no one really cares or has the money to fight the road lobbyists.

I'm sure if my website gets well known in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties that the taxpayers would protest the massive freeway expansion by voting NO next August. This would mean much more funding. YES means NO and NO means YES next August, if you really do want to improve public bus service. So, write to Mr. Hertel and get him to debate me on television.

John C. Hertel, General Manager,
Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation - SMART
Buhl Building
535 Griswold Street Suite 600,
Detroit, MI 48226

[cramerro]

Thank you very much for your post

The tax was never meant to cover the entire operating budget.

Federal Law supersedes County and Local Tax proposals including the August vote. Alternative funds must be secured first not only for the handicapped but for all existing community transit including the large line buses and for the able bodied.

Write and ask Mr. Hertel, if you have any doubt about anything is my extensive website which does prove $400 Million was slashed from public bus service since 1995 to build HOV lanes and expand I-94 in midtown Detroit. MDOT got away with this because no one really cares or has the money to fight the road lobbyists.

I'm sure if my website gets well known in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties that the taxpayers would protest the massive freeway expansion by voting NO next August. This would mean much more funding. YES means NO and NO means YES next August, if you really do want to improve public bus service. So, write to Mr. Hertel and get him to debate me on television.

John C. Hertel, General Manager,
Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation - SMART
Buhl Building
535 Griswold Street Suite 600,
Detroit, MI 48226

You are welcome for my post. I wish you would have read it. My reaction to your response: Where do you come up with this sh*t?! Now you're saying that if a transit agency is facing funding shortfalls, they can't cut service? They or the State or the Feds have to come up with the funds elsewhere? Gee, wouldn't that have been nice if the State and Feds had to find replacement funding every time they reduced transportation spending. Also, not sure if you noticed, but MDOT has spent maybe a few million replacing [[which it would have to anyway) the crumbling Van Dyke and W Grand Blvd bridges... that's it for all of your evil empire projects that have actually been paid for. If $400 Million has already been siphoned and spent to widen I-94 and build HOV lanes, I must be taking the wrong I-94! I don't know why I waste my time responding, other than I would regret not having tried if your posts went unchallenged and misled even one person in to buying into this BS.

[That Great Guy]

You are welcome for my post. I wish you would have read it. My reaction to your response: Where do you come up with this sh*t?! Now you're saying that if a transit agency is facing funding shortfalls, they can't cut service? They or the State or the Feds have to come up with the funds elsewhere? Gee, wouldn't that have been nice if the State and Feds had to find replacement funding every time they reduced transportation spending. Also, not sure if you noticed, but MDOT has spent maybe a few million replacing [[which it would have to anyway) the crumbling Van Dyke and W Grand Blvd bridges... that's it for all of your evil empire projects that have actually been paid for. If $400 Million has already been siphoned and spent to widen I-94 and build HOV lanes, I must be taking the wrong I-94! I don't know why I waste my time responding, other than I would regret not having tried if your posts went unchallenged and misled even one person in to buying into this BS.

I appreciate this post very much and have read it very carefully.

The able bodied people in Livonia kept bus service after November 2006. There were no tax cuts but instead fraud, false propaganda and much hype. The City said there was a tax cut coming but it was a bait and switch tactic which resulted in higher taxes for most residents and businesses. Wal-Mart officials bulldozed over a transit center and they got a free road expansion. I tried to save the land which should have been kept by the taxpayers.

My opponents sent out flyers of blind people in wheelchairs claiming without your YES vote, these people will be stranded. These flyers cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and were sent out all over metro Detroit. They were and are illegal and fraud, against federal laws and are immoral The Newspaper stories also were illegal. That is why you think the way you do about my WebSite. Some of my opponents don't print their real names, like I do.

My WebSite is extremely extensive. If you make it well known, no one will lose their job or bus service. Any existing service that is used for jobs or the handicapped will remain. There will be no budget shortfall. Instead SMART would have to publicly justify an increase and go after the freeway lobbyists and overweight trucks and the illegal tax shifts which are indeed costing jobs due to the loss of multiple tax mechanisms and logistics. Regional planners presently won't comply with sound economic principles.

My WebSite is all honest, backed up with facts, made with lots of compassion and is very peaceful. If it gets known, mass transit will get much more funding and the taxpayers will know to support mass transit by putting safety first and understanding the economic value of not driving everywhere and the need to help others.

Please make save the fuel tax dot org

extremely well known and you will see, it is better for all the voters to be SMART

[Danny]

The able bodied people in Livonia kept bus service after November 2006. There were no tax cuts but instead fraud, false propaganda and much hype. The City said there was a tax cut coming but it was a bait and switch tactic which resulted in higher taxes for most residents and businesses. Wal-Mart officials bulldozed over a transit center and they got a free road expansion. I tried to save the land which should have been kept by the taxpayers.

I agree with that statement! I was some racist Livonia homesteader that propose Livonia City Hall to trick its residents. 'We don't have 3 million dollars for Wayne County Transit Authority go they can give those dollars to SMART. So opting SMART buses out of their main roads will save us some money.' Those white folks in Livonia were duped! A racial plot to keep more black folks out of Livonia is working for the moment. Give it about 30 years, there will be more black folks moving in Livonia. That's when I tell that story to my kids.

They can't keep D-DOT buses out of Livonia.

[Danny]

Sorry Great Guy A.K.A. Trainman you lost for the 4th time. The voters have spoken. SMART buses will continue to run for years to come. Keep publishing your lies, the result of the matter is people need regional transit for jobs, errands or visiting their friends.