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County delays RTA proposal
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Dane County residents will not see a Regional Transit Authority referendum on their April 1 ballot, as the Dane County Board of Supervisors voted Thursday to hold off on a referendum until the state crafts RTA legislation.
In January, Dane County Supervisor Jack Martz, District 33, proposed a resolution to include a referendum on the April election ballot, asking constituents if Dane County should establish a RTA to develop a commuter rail system funded by a 0.5 percent sales tax increase to bring in about $45 million annually.
Many supervisors opposed such a referendum at Thursday’s meeting, asking, “How can we ask the public to vote on an RTA if the RTA does not exist?”
The RTA is the brainchild of Transport 2020, a group of university, city and state officials who study future transportation in Dane County and surrounding areas. According to Transport 2020, 600,000 people will live in Dane County by year 2030. The RTA is a plan to establish an all-purpose transportation system accommodating growing population concerns in both the isthmus and the surrounding areas of the county.
County Board Chair Scott McDonell said he had a problem with the wording of Martz’s resolution.
“If my constituents asked me what the RTA does or about the sales tax, I would have to say ‘I don’t know,’” he said.
Supporters of Martz’s resolution said it would benefit RTA plans to hear what constituents think about the plan.
Martz said, “What’s wrong with people having an opportunity in their life to say, ‘Do I want this or not?’” He said the county board has encouraging information to send an application to the federal government requesting money to conduct a study on the effects of a potential transit system, and the deadline to apply is near.
The majority of supervisors said they did not think it was right for opening the vote up to the public when even they were unsure of the details.
Supervisor Ashok Kumar, District 5, said the decision to wait for state legislation was wise.
“I think this is a democratic way of figuring out whether or not we should establish a RTA,” said Kumar, who represents the UW campus area.
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I’m fine with the 0.5% tax, but ALL of the money raised with that tax should go to the RTA. I don’t want them using this money in ten years, after the thing is built, for helping people build condos or some crazy thing. It should be for building and maintaining the RTA!
Ultimately the public should be given the right to vote whether or not to spend money on an RTA. The benefit of an early vote (by referendum) would be to get a reading on what level of support there is. If there is little support, time and money could be saved on this subject.
Personally, I feel that only a minority of citizens would ever find that they could benefit from the system. I think it would be highly coincidental to find individuals who could find a timely routing to their destination, especially considering the likely necessity of getting to a nearby terminal at the start of a trip and from another terminal at their destination. I doubt that even 5% of the population would qualify. Why not do a study using a statistically significant random selecting of individuals? Charles Treichel, Fitchburg