RTA Falls Short of Votes Needed to Put Regional Transit on Ballot

A proposal on the funding mechanism for a regional transit plan that would add more bus lines, connect Detroit and Ann Arbor with rail and improve airport access didn’t muster enough support Thursday at a special meeting of the Regional Transit Authority of Southeast Michigan, leaving only a few days to resolve differences and get the plan before voters on Nov. 8, according to media reports.

Oakland and Macomb county executives L. Brooks Patterson and Mark Hackel, respectively, have refused to support the governance agreement and worry their counties could be shortchanged under a $4.65 billion regional transit plan.

The plan needed the support of seven of the nine members of the RTA board, but Patterson, Hackel and the board members representing their counties voted against it. For the Nov. 8 ballot in the four RTA member counties — which also include Wayne and Washtenaw — county clerks would have to receive the ballot language by Aug. 16.

If the differences can't be resolved in time to meet the deadline, the funding proposal won't be eligible for the ballot for another two years.

The plan being discussed requires voter approval of a millage rate of 1.2 mills for 20 years (2017-2036). The average homeowner would pay an additional $7.92 a month, or about $95 a month, to pay for the system. The owner of a $200,000 home would pay about $120 annually.

• Oakland, Macomb Objections Scuttle Regional Transit Vote
• County Execs Accused of Playing Politics on $4.65B Transit Plan

RTA board chairman Paul Hillegonds acknowledged the stalemate Thursday.

“This board has gone as far as it can go” on the issue, he said adding it’s now up to elected officials “to figure it out,” The Detroit News reported.

“We’ve waited way too long, and it would be unfair to the …. to the riders and the citizens in this region” if the plan isn’t put before voters, Hendrix said.

In a statement, Wayne County Executive Warren C. Evans said a reliable regional transit options are important for the area to thrive:

“Our citizens deserve the opportunity to vote on the Regional Transit Authority millage in November. Approval by the RTA Board of the RTA’s master plan is a step in the right direction toward our shared vision for a world-class regional transit system. The improved system proposed by the RTA will build upon the progress that Detroit and Wayne County have made in the past few years, progress that is strengthening our region as a whole. With this plan everybody wins. While individual concerns must be addressed, we cannot afford to once again delay development of true regional transit. It is too important to workers, students, and families throughout southeast Michigan. Failure to place this millage on the ballot in November could impede the progress we have made in the region. I’m committed to working to address the concerns of our regional partners to bring them on board.”

It's possible the objections can be overcome in time to make the November ballot. Hackel told the Detroit Free Press, and said he is "willing to compromise on every other issue" except a governance structure that requires a supermajority or a unanimous vote to make major funding changes.

"It's a very simple thing for me, and it's not just a Macomb issue," he said. "It works for everybody."

Patterson said in a statement that Oakland County taxpayers would be asked to finance a transit system that wouldn't reach 40 of the county's communities.

“The current regional master transit plan abandons more than half a million Oakland County residents in 40 of our communities, leaving them with little or no transit services but demanding they pay more than $700 million in taxes over 20 years,” Patterson said. “I support regional transit, but I won’t be stampeded into a bad deal.”

Oakland County's other representative on the RTA board, Chuck Moss, said the plan fell short.

“This isn’t the plan that we were looking for,” Moss said. “This is not a regional transit plan; it’s a regional taxation plan. It’s a plan without transportation. No taxation without transportation.”

Before the vote, the Detroit Free Press editorial board wrote that “failure is public transit’s evil twin. For 50 years, we haven't had one without the other.” Plans to create a functional regional transit system have filed 26 times before in the past half century.

On Wednesday, advocates of the plan held a press conference outlining what they called an urgency to move forward on regional transit to improve residents access to jobs, school and other activities.

“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.