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TARTA Public Hearing Brings Objections to Proposed Service
Cuts
By Fletcher Word
Sojourner’s Truth Editor
The Toledo Area Regional
Transit Authority held a public hearing on Thursday October
11 at the Kent Branch Library and the audience of bus riders
expressed their disappointment with the proposed service
cuts TARTA is suggesting.
The looming financial
crisis has prompted TARTA officials to propose shorter
operating hours and to cut Sunday and holiday service
altogether. Other proposed changes include: modification of
Muddy Shuttle and Walleye Shuttle services; discontinuation
of 6 King road/City of Sylvania; schedule adjustments to 39
Franklin Park Mall/City of Sylvania/39M
Monroe/Centennial-Sylvania; schedule adjustments go 29X
Waterville Express.
Residents voiced their
dismay at the suggestions which would negatively impact
numerous would severely limit access to leisurely activities
on weekends and holidays for those who depend on buses.
Bill Kelly, TARTA’s
planning director, spoke about how the recent decision by
the Sylvania Township’s board of trustees to block a
proposal that would have switched the authority’s funding
source from property taxes to sales taxes had led to the
dire circumstances TARTA and its riders face. The board of
trustees voted, by a 2-1 margin, to reject the TARTA plan in
July.
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.
TARTA’s proposal, which
called 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 – had been approved by Ottawa Hills
and Maumee – both unanimously. 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, revolved mainly around the bad
taste a “new tax” leaves in the mouths of the majority of
trustees, said 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.
Now, TARTA will have to
make the spending cuts to save about $2 million annually
along with raising fares and enacting more spending cuts to
make up another $1 million. TARTA’s base fare of $1.25 is
among the lowest of Ohio major transit systems and has not
been rasied in three years.
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