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TARTA Seeks Renewal of Property Tax Before Seeking a Sales
Tax
Sojourner’s Truth Staff
“We have support for a sales tax,” says Amy
Mohr, director, Community Relations for the Toledo Area
Regional Transit Authority. That sales tax, which up to now
has been stymied by the opposition of the Sylvania Township
trustees, is seen by the transit authority as the answer to
funding issues that have plagued public transportation
riders for years.
A study commissioned by TARTA concluded that
the years old property tax funding model was no longer
sustainable and that a sales tax made more sense. A sales
tax, however, requires the approval of the voters in all the
member communities – and, first, the approval of the towns’
trustees, or executives, to be placed on a ballot.
In 2018, when TARTA attempted to gain that
approval, two of the three Sylvania Township trustees
blocked them, by declining to place the issue on a ballot
for their constituents to consider even though polls showed
that most voters in the Township would have approved.
Nonetheless, however strong they might
estimate the support for a sales tax might be, the
conclusion of TARTA management is that they will need at
least until next November – 2020 – to educate voters on the
need for the sales tax and to gain approval at the polls
from all the member communities. At that point, the plan is
to seek approval for a .05 percent sales tax.
However, the current 10-year property tax
levy of one millage, which brings in about $5.3 million
annually, is due to expire in 2020 and, therefore, TARTA
can’t afford to wait for the extended campaign that a sales
tax would involve. Therefore, the transit system is planning
to ask for the renewal of the property tax in March 2020 and
place on the ballot in November 2020 a request for a sales
tax to replace the property tax.
The big task for the transit authority will
be in overcoming confusion among voters as they request
back-to-back funding approvals – as distinct as those
requests might be. In November 2020, on a crowded ballot in
particular, the message of how the authority is seeking a
change in funding, rather than adding on more funding, may
well get lost among so many other campaign messages.
None of this will be finalized until the
TARTA board gives its approval during the November 2019
meeting but until then, management feels, according to Mohr
“we have support in places we haven’t had support before.”
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