After 20 years of pushing for legislation to institute a Regional Transit Authority, a resolution was introduced to the county board Thursday to create a governing board addressing the county’s need for better transportation.
The RTA governing board would act as an independent body and determine what transportation projects should be pursued to enable more accessible transit across the county, according to Scott McDonell, chair of the Dane County Board of Supervisors.
He added increasing bus transit to and from different cities in the county and enacting a commuter rail are potential projects the board may look to undertake.
Nine representatives will constitute the board, ranging from an appointment by the governor to delegates of local cities and villages like Middleton and Fitchburg, McDonell said.
“We’re the only Big Ten state that didn’t have basic Regional Transit Authority statute or language,” McDonell said. “The major hold-up on activating a commuter rail was that there was no language for an RTA. The Federal Transit Administration refused to help fund the project without an RTA to provide a stable source of funding.”
Right now, the county lacks an entity to plan bus or rail transit across city boundaries. Movement for a RTA board to plan and fund this type of transit has been ongoing for the past 20 years.
“This project for us was long and challenging, like getting the broom from the wicked witch of the west in the ‘Wizard of Oz,'” McDonell said.
The state budget passed by the Legislature this summer called for the creation of an RTA in Dane County. The RTA still needs approval from the county board.
Once official, the board is committed to a referendum where voters will determine if a $38 million yearly sales tax on purchases will be allowed for the RTA’s use, McDonell said.
County Executive Kathleen Falk will be appointing members to the board and will abide by her long-standing position to require a referendum before any taxing is permitted, according to Falk spokesperson Josh Wescott.
After the referendum, the next step is to take a good look at the county’s transit needs and determine the best ways to address them in order to get people from point A to point B as safely and efficiently as possible, Wescott said.
Mayor David Cieslewicz has been a supporter of the RTA since the language for its creation went through the state budget, and he is looking forward to working on the board, according to spokesperson Rachel Strauch-Nelson.
“The RTA will allow us a lot of possibilities to improve our bus service and explore a lot of other options for a regional transit system,” Strauch-Nelson said.
McDonell said the RTA is important because there is a need for better transit into Madison for those commuting daily to work.
“We’re going to see gas prices go up the next 20 years and the community is going to rely on more transit to be competitive, especially campus,” McDonell said. “We need to have solutions to commuting to keep the economic engine of the community going.”
