|
TARTA Proposal Rejected by Sylvania Township
By Fletcher Word
Sojourner’s Truth Editor
Most Sylvania Township
residents would support the new Toledo Area Regional Transit
Authority proposal to expand its service area and hours and
implement a sales tax to pay for the expanded service
according to the results of a telephone survey conducted by
Odesky and Associates of 300 likely voters in the township.
According to the survey,
46.3 percent supported the TARTA proposal, 21 percent were
against it and 32.7 percent were undecided; 58 percent
favored a sales tax and only 5.7 percent supported a
property tax.
Most Sylvania Township
Board of Trustees members will not support the new proposal,
however, and for a third time those voters rejected the
proposal by a 2-1 vote. The township’s residents will not
have the opportunity to have their say about the matter of
expended service.
TARTA’s proposal, which
calls for a countywide 0.4 percent sales tax to replace the
property taxes now collected by the TARTA community members
– Toledo, Ottawa Hills, Sylvania, Sylvania Township, Maumee,
Rossford and Waterville – has been approved by Ottawa Hills
and Maumee – both unanimously. That is of little matter now
– all of the community members, plus Lucas County, had to
approve the new structure.
The reasons for the
rejection, according to the naysayers on the Sylvania
Township Board of Trustees, revolve mainly around the bad
taste a “new tax” leaves in the mouths of the majority of
trustees, says Carly Allen, president of the bus drivers’
labor union, who worked closely with TARTA on the proposal.
“They said they were now
impressed with the plan, the 0.4 percent sales tax was too
big and they didn’t feel they had been informed enough,” she
said after the vote. “However, the first thing we did to
re-tool was to reach out – they have been in the loop and
would have been accepted even more.”
This year, TARTA put
together a plan that will dramatically alter its mass
transit concept – expanding service, improving service,
improving efficiency, introducing new programs and
innovative technologies. It’s a plan that has been conceived
after a lengthy public research study that examined not only
what current and potential riders want and expect but also
what a variety of public transit systems from around the
nation are offering to their customers.
In order to create a
strategic plan that would win the approval of member
communities and the voters come election time, TARTA teamed
up with Hart Associates, the area marketing firm, and AECOM,
a multinational engineering firm. The new strategic plan –
Move Toledo – is an effort to respond to regional changes;
to address problems identified with current services; to
make it easier to use public transit; to identify adequate
funding and to create efficiencies if operations.
The result of that study
is a plan that includes advances in three key areas: core
improvements – a makeover of current services and funding;
technology – changes that will enhance the rider’s
experience and alternative fuels to improve efficiency; new
services – that will grant broader access and offer more
personalized transportation options.
The area of core
improvements presents the immediate impact to riders in
streamlining main-line services, updating the aging fleet,
enhancing services for the elderly and for passengers with
disabilities and creating a citizens committee.
The key to the whole
package, however, is funding – finding more funding with
greater flexibility. Ultimately, a change in funding is the
issue TARTA is waiting for member communities and the Board
of Commissioners to approve. That change is critical, said
CEO/General Manager James Gee, in order for TARTA to bring
enhanced and improved services to more area customers.
The proposed change would
eliminate the property tax that provides 46 percent of
TARTA’s funding and replace that source with a county-wide
sales tax – an increase of .05 percent. There are three
benefits to this change, says Gee. First, area property
owners would not have to pay the 2.5 mill in taxes; second,
much better transit service would be provided and, third, of
the proposed .05 percent increase in sales tax, one-third of
that amount would go back to the member communities for
infrastructure improvements.
After the rejection by
Sylvania Township the next step for TARTA and supporters,
says Allen, is to start a door-to-door campaign to reach out
directly to voters to force the trustees to reconsider their
vote.
|
