
{"id":26338,"date":"2012-06-07T10:23:05","date_gmt":"2012-06-07T14:23:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=26338"},"modified":"2012-06-07T10:23:05","modified_gmt":"2012-06-07T14:23:05","slug":"transit-tax-to-appear-on-nov-ballot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2012\/06\/07\/transit-tax-to-appear-on-nov-ballot\/","title":{"rendered":"Transit tax to appear on Nov. ballot"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Rose Laudicina<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Staff Writer<\/em> <\/p>\n<p>HILLSBOROUGH \u00e2\u20ac\u201c In a move that will let voters decide the future of transit in Orange County, the Orange County Board of Commissioners voted 5-2 to approve putting a transit-tax referendum on the November ballot. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m very glad we have passed it,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d board Chair Bernadette Pelissier said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We owe it to the public to let them vote on it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>By putting the half-percent sales-tax referendum for public transportation on the ballot, the commissioners are leaving it up to voters to decide if the county will have some of the funds needed to proceed with the Orange County Transit Plan, which was also approved 5-2 at the Tuesday night meeting. <\/p>\n<p>In both instances commissioners Earl McKee and Steve Yuhasz cast the two dissenting votes. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We are putting all of our transit eggs in this basket that is really so heavily weighted to a light-rail plan that provides just scraps of the real kind of transit that we are most likely to need in the foreseeable future,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Yuhasz said. <\/p>\n<p>The Orange County Transit Plan includes expanded bus hours and service provided by Chapel Hill Transit, TTA and Orange County; route enhancements along Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard; an Amtrak station in Hillsborough; and light rail that would connect UNC Hospitals to Alston Avenue in Durham. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We have now approved a transit plan, but there are no monies in the general fund to do this,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Commissioner Pam Hemminger said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153In order to have this plan we have to pass this referendum.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Triangle Transit Authority estimates that if the half-percent sales tax is passed in Orange County it will generate approximately $5 million in 2013 if active for the full year. <\/p>\n<p>In November 2011, voters in Durham passed a similar half-percent sales tax, which will allow Durham to expand their public transit and help fund their portion of the light-rail system.<\/p>\n<p>The issue of transit has become a contentious one for the county commissioners over the past few months, as some residents say the plan disproportionately benefits the municipalities, most notably Chapel Hill, and gives very little to the rural community. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153This is a great design for one particular portion of the county at significant expenditure,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Chris Weaver, a candidate for commissioner in District 2, told the board. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153District 2 pays half the fees, but receives token increase in bus services. Why should the rural area pay half?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Commissioner Barry Jacobs addressed the question of service disparity. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I want to address this whole issue of who get\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Jacobs said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t say I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m really tired of it; I will say it is a constant refrain.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Everyone gets served by Orange County government. You are all getting treated to the best of our ability, by the board of county commissioners and our staff, to be equitable and progressive.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Members of the Chapel Hill Town Council \u00e2\u20ac\u201c including Jim Ward, Ed Harrison, Penny Rich and Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt \u00e2\u20ac\u201c were present at the meeting to show their support for both the transit plan and putting the tax on the November ballot. <\/p>\n<p>In approving the tax, the commissioners added into the motion that the tax not be levied until an implementation agreement with Triangle Transit has been finalized. <\/p>\n<p>Staff will work on the implementation agreement over the summer and bring it back in August for final approval. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Orange County Board of Commissioners voted 5-2 to approve putting a transit-tax referendum on the November ballot.<\/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-26338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26338","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=26338"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26339,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26338\/revisions\/26339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}