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Toledo and Sylvania Township residents were in attendance to
discuss concerns and solutions. Immediately following
refreshments, forum facilitators Papenfuse and Brock
provided a PowerPoint slide which displayed that Toledo is
the only major city in Ohio that funds its transit system by
property taxes while the other cities: Cleveland, Columbus,
Cincinnati, Dayton, Akron, Canton, Youngstown, Lake Co and
Portage Co generate sales taxes that range from .25 percent
to one percent.
The group discussed several action steps that will begin
next week. The first action step called for the on-going
education of Toledo and Sylvania Township voters with the
statistics announced earlier in the meeting through forums,
information about sales tax verse property tax savings, and
letters to the editor of local media outlets.
“I don’t believe that Lucas County voters understand what
needs to be done to fix this issue. We need to stand up in
support of keep TARTA’s full schedule,” said Earl Murry,
PhD.
The second action step outlined discussion topics for a
joint meeting between the Sylvania Township elected
officials, the City of Toledo elected officials and the task
force that attended the forum today. “I’m for educating the
public, but let’s get the County Commissioners here to meet
with us. We need the commissioners to stand with us at a
Sylvania Township meeting,” shared Jessica Weinbelg, an
advocacy organizer.
The final action step requested that all attendees rally at
the December 18 Sylvania Township meeting, and address the
Sylvania Township trustees. “We need to go to their meeting,
the Sylvania Township meeting in large numbers,” explained
Rev. Brock.
Several supporters including Earl Murry and Jessica Weinbelg
urged each forum attendee to recruit up to five people who
will attend the December 18 Sylvania Township meeting, and
just sit or stand there in support. “Everyone should bring
at least five people, who support us, in the spirit of
cooperation. We don’t need signs or protest loudly, we’ll
have our two spokespersons speak for us,” shared Murry.
At least one Sylvania Township resident who was present
voiced opposing concerns, and asked to remain anonymous. “I
can’t get hired and I have four degrees, but this is my
reality,” he said. “When people voted against this, it
wasn’t about race. It wasn’t racist. We also have economic
issues, just like everyone else. My spare money goes to feed
my family, keeping my heat and lights on and keeping fuel in
my car, so I don’t want to pay a higher property tax. I
blame TARTA, why can’t they learn how to run like a
business, and stand on their own instead of depending on us?
When people see Sylvania Township, they think we all have
money, but we’re not wealthy.”
Once the first three steps are completed, Papenfuse plans to
continue working on a general election proposed change by
TARTA to fund public transportation.
TARTA’s plan was to place
the sales tax proposal before the voters but it first
required that the elected officials of all of TARTA’s member
communities – Toledo and its suburbs – approve the ballot
measure. Sylvania Township, alone among the member
communities, declined to place the measure on the ballot for
voters to have a say in the matter.
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.
Now that the two Sylvania
township trustees, John Jennewine and Neal Mahoney, have
declined to let voters decide the matter, TARTA has been
forced to make drastic cuts in its service. At the end of
the year TARTA will discontinue Sunday and holiday service,
modify some of the fixed routes on the schedule and
eliminate some early and late routes.
“The seven other cities that support TARTA have all agreed
to place this on the general election ballot, but our issue
right now is the two Sylvania Township trustees Jennewine
and Mahoney. Once the sales tax issue is approved, this will
no longer be an adjudication issue,” said Papenfuse. |
