
{"id":18806,"date":"2011-06-09T12:36:41","date_gmt":"2011-06-09T16:36:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=18806"},"modified":"2011-06-09T12:36:41","modified_gmt":"2011-06-09T16:36:41","slug":"county-rejects-half-cent-transit-tax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2011\/06\/09\/county-rejects-half-cent-transit-tax\/","title":{"rendered":"County rejects half-cent transit tax"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Joshua Lucas<br \/>\n<\/strong><em>Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>HILLSBOROUGH  \u00e2\u20ac\u201d The Orange County Board of Commissioners unanimously rejected a half-cent sales tax increase to pay for regional transit improvements Tuesday night, despite offering support for the idea of a comprehensive regional transportation system.<\/p>\n<p>The vote, taken after a presentation by planners from Triangle Transit and the county\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s own transportation officials, means county voters won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t vote on the sales-tax increase at the polls in November.<\/p>\n<p>Commissioners have yet to vote on the plan itself, which proposes spending hundreds of millions of dollars on regional rail and bus service. But a key financing provision, the half-cent increase in the county\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sales tax, proved too much for the commissioners to swallow in tight economic times.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I have to be a little more realistic with what the economy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s doing,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Commissioner Pam Hemminger said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not ready to move forward this fall given the circumstances going on in our community.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>The plan, which aims to link Orange, Durham and Wake counties in an extensive network of commuter rail, buses and point-to-point services, depends in large part on funding from state and federal government that hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been procured yet.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It presumes that money would be coming from other sources,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d board Chair Bernadette Pelissier said.<\/p>\n<p>It was that funding model that left commissioners worried. But Triangle Transit planners stressed the plan took into account worst-case projections and allowed for plenty of elbow room for unexpected costs and changes.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We think these are ways to deliver conservatism in multiple directions,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d TT transportation planner Patrick McDonough said. The debt plan, for instance, presumes at worst case a significant reserve of at least $3 million, he said.<\/p>\n<p>But the combination of heavy reliance on state and federal funding and increased sales taxes proved too much for commissioners.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153This is a little overwhelming,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said board Vice Chair Steve Yuhasz. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Is there a Plan B?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s unclear how the plan could move forward without the sales-tax increase, since the plan calls for much of the county\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s contribution to the plan \u00e2\u20ac\u201c $180 million over the life of the plan \u00e2\u20ac\u201c\u00c2\u00a0to come from the sales-tax increase. The plan calls for at least $330 million in additional capital costs for the county over the decades-long life of the plan.<\/p>\n<p>In 2009 the General Assembly approved letting the three Triangle counties vote on increasing the sales tax for transit improvements. Over the past eight months, regional governments and leaders have worked to develop the plan, which would require approval from all three counties\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 governments.<\/p>\n<p>But Wake County has declined to put a sales-tax increase on the ballot in the fall, prompting Commissioner Earl McKee to ponder whether the plan was really all it set out to be.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153A regional plan is not a regional plan unless the largest player is in it,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said.<\/p>\n<p>But commissioners said they wanted to find a way to move forward with the plan. Commissioner Alice Gordon, who has worked with the planners, stressed that the plan could survive a delayed vote on the sales tax.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s important to move this along,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Commissioners will discuss the rest of the plan at their June 21 meeting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Orange County BOC unanimously rejected a half-cent sales tax increase to pay for regional transit improvements&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18806","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\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18806"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18871,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18806\/revisions\/18871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}