
{"id":18435,"date":"2011-05-26T08:15:38","date_gmt":"2011-05-26T12:15:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=18435"},"modified":"2011-05-26T09:11:57","modified_gmt":"2011-05-26T13:11:57","slug":"carrboro-calls-for-tax-to-fund-rail-bus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2011\/05\/26\/carrboro-calls-for-tax-to-fund-rail-bus\/","title":{"rendered":"Carrboro calls for tax to fund rail, bus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Susan Dickson<br \/>\n<\/strong><em>Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p> CARRBORO  \u00e2\u20ac\u201c The Carrboro Board of Aldermen voted unanimously Tuesday to support a measure paying for public transit \u00e2\u20ac\u201c including local bus service improvements and light rail between UNC and Durham \u00e2\u20ac\u201c through a half-cent sales tax. <\/p>\n<p>Under a 2009 bill approved by the N.C. General Assembly, the Orange County Board of Commissioners could choose to put a half-cent sales tax on the November ballot to pay for public transit service. In addition, the bill authorized a $10 increase in vehicle registration fees to further support public transit. <\/p>\n<p>Elected officials have developed a draft plan for transit changes, including bus service expansion and improvements and light rail connecting UNC and Durham \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which could be completed as early as 2025. <\/p>\n<p>Costs for the light rail would be shared between Orange and Durham counties, with Orange County\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s share projected to be about $3.2 million annually for operations and $330 million for construction.<\/p>\n<p>However, board members said they were concerned that county commissioners might hold off on the referendum, given that a quarter-cent sales tax to fund economic development and schools is already on the November ballot. Board member Joal Hall Broun said she felt that the commissioners were concerned about asking for another tax increase given the current economic climate. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I really disagree with the way that the county commissioners are looking at this right now,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\nMayor Mark Chilton said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pretty clear that they feel that the quarter-cent sales-tax proposal that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re already planning on having on the ballot in November is very important to the Orange County budget and they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to do anything that they perceive jeopardizes the quarter-cent sales tax passing.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>David King, CEO and general manager of Triangle Transit, pointed out that the Triangle was just identified as the nation\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s top gas-guzzling region per household by Forbes.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153When [gas] prices go up, we suffer disproportionately,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Whereas it may be pleasant to have that sort of spread-out demographic we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a cost associated with it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Planning for transportation alternatives, such as light rail and bus, is crucial, he said. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a way to assimilate the 1.2 million people that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re all told are coming our way, without it destroying us,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. <\/p>\n<p>Chilton said if gas prices continue to rise, transit changes become increasingly needed.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153This is what I got involved in local government to do 20 years ago \u00e2\u20ac\u201c to make this kind of transformation in our public transit system,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Chilton said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153When ordinary working people can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t afford \u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 to fill up their gas tank, I think people are going to look at us and say, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcWhat were you doing? Why has this taken so long? We need this now.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Carrboro BOA voted to support a measure paying for public transit through a half-cent sales tax. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18435"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18435\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18488,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18435\/revisions\/18488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}