County Execs Accused of Playing Politics on $4.65B Transit Plan

Two powerful politicians who worry their counties could be shortchanged under a $4.65 billion regional transit plan were urged Wednesday to set their objections aside and let voters in Oakland, Wayne, Macomb and Washtenaw decide on the funding mechanism in the Nov. 8 general election.

Last week, Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson and Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel raised questions about the fairness of a proposed millage to support the Regional Transit Authority of Southeast Michigan plan that would add more bus lines, connect Detroit and Ann Arbor with new rail, and increase access to airport services.

Their opposition, along with that of RTA board members from the two counties, effectively scuttled a vote on the plan last week. The four-county RTA board will take the issue up again at 1 p.m.Thursday at a special meeting to be held at Detroit Regional Chamber headquarters, One Woodward Ave., Detroit.

At the Wednesday news conference in Bloomfield Hills, supporters of the transit plan implored Patterson and Hackel to change their votes, the Detroit Free Press reported. Swift action is necessary if a proposed 1.2-mill, 20-year property tax is to make it on the Nov. 8 ballot. County clerks in the four counties, which also include Wayne and Washtenaw counties, need ballot language by Aug. 16.

• Oakland, Macomb Objections Scuttle Regional Transit Vote

“We are here today because there are tens of thousands of people who are suffering and struggling because we don't provide them the transit they need to get where they need to go,” said Megan Owens, executive director Transportation Riders United, a transit-advocacy group.

She dismissed the executives’ long list of concerns as “very tight minutiae of accounting procedures and of a lot of things that are not truly about the people who need transit.”

“For months, the discussions have been ongoing, and it appeared that all of the counties were behind this and then suddenly Oakland and Macomb balked and refused to take the necessary steps to put this on the ballot,” Owens said, according to a report in The Detroit News.

Marie Donigan, transit coordinator for the Harriet Tubman Center, thinks Patterson and Hackel are playing politics and the dearth of transit options is making it difficult for scores of Metro Detroit residents to get to work, churches and schools, The Detroit News reported.

“They should listen to the people, and they can hear the same stories that I’ve heard over the last year, why they want a transit system and why they need a better connected transit system,” Donigan said. “Once you listen to all of this, you know that it’s the right thing to do to let the people decide.”

Hackel wants a governance structure that requires unanimous votes about funding and resource allocations, similar to the governing body of the Cobo Center, even if it requires legislative approval. If the vote doesn’t take place in time to put it on the November ballot, it can’t come be brought before voters until the next major fall election in 2018.

“If we’re going to be true regional partners, we should have not just a seat at the table, but a say,” Hackel told the Free Press. “People are more likely to trust that and approve it.

“It not getting on the ballot is not the worst thing that can happen.The worst thing would be for it to get on the ballot and fail.”
In a statement responding to the county executives’ objections last week, RTA Chairman Paul Hillegonds said he was “disappointed” at the objections raised by the two executives.

“For nearly 50 years, our region – alone in the country – has been unable to come together to deliver the kind of comprehensive regional transit system needed to expand access to jobs; provide independence for seniors and individuals with disabilities; and enable us to compete with vibrant regions across the country for investment and growth,” Hillegonds said.

“The great disappointment if we are unable to go forward is that, on these most fundamental and challenging issues, the RTA plan gets it right,” Hillegonds continued. “To the extent there are open issues, it is because we are off by an inch, not a mile. Rather, the gulf will be one of trust. If we cannot bridge this and go forward together, it will signify not that the RTA plan is deficient, but something much deeper about our capacity to function as a region. We will fall further behind, and this we will do together.”