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The Dane County Board voted to create the Dane County Regional Transit Authority early Friday morning by a 20-16 vote with one absence. Robin Schmidt voted in favor.
Monona has much to gain from the RTA, probably more than any community not directly located on the proposed commuter rail line. Our current bus service is inadequate; it fills some commuter needs very well and provides good service to seniors, but is very much a limited, part-time operation. We could probably never afford to sign up with Madison Metro under existing levy caps. The RTA at least gives Monona chance to be fully served by transit service.
Creation of the RTA also allows Dane County to move forward with applications for federal transit authority funding, which would have been dead in the water without establishment of the RTA.
A key question is whether voters will approve a half-cents sales tax. (Technically, the RTA Board has the authority to decide that issue, but won't do so without a referendum.)
According to the State Journal story: County exec Falk, Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and the mayors of Fitchburg and Middleton have signed a letter committing their appointees to hold an RTA-wide referendum before imposing up to a half-cent sales tax.
To have a prayer of passage, the RTA Board will need to come up with a plan that does more than just operate a commuter train fro Sun Prairie to Middleton.
I'd be interested especially in comments from anyone who attended the meeting.
Friday, November 06, 2009
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Heather here:
ReplyDeleteI attended the meeting with another Monona resident. When we arrived and saw how many people were there, we registered in support of the RTA rather than speak. We didn't want to prolong the debate.
There were slightly more people there in support than against. Many of those against the RTA brought up "taxation without representation."
There were some pithy and thoughtful speeches. I especially appreciated the words of Steve Leo, Phyllis Hasbrouk, a young man representing the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce, and a handful of students whose names I don't know.
By the time we left at 1:40 a.m. or thereabouts, I was so thankful that one of the first orders of business taken up by the board was to limit the each person's appearance to three minutes instead of five. I also liked that each supervisor was limited to how long they could speak! If the public has a limit, then the elected officials should, too, eh? Perhaps we could use this on the city council? (Tongue only partly in-cheek.)
I believe that the majority of speakers, for and against the "RTA", support expanded bus service - which is likely to be the top priority for the newly formed RTA. Check out information about BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) - it's much more cost-effective than rail, using existing infrastructure and providing very timely service. Imagine lines coming from Stoughton, Fitchburg, etc. to Madison transfer points and then to points onward. Imagine buses once again stopping on Monona Drive and the businesses that could benefit from those stops! See http://www.nbrti.org/Madison_Seminar.html for more info. We have a great potential for an integrated transit system that will further enhance the re-developments along Monona Drive. I do like the comment that just because transit and trains have many of the same letters in them, they don't mean the same thing - and this is a transit system, not a train system. And I am still amazed that Heather managed to stay to the very end!
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