One way to get a transit funding tax plan approved is just to cut outlying areas out of transit taxes, and transit planning, entirely.
"The Regional Transit Authority of Southeast Michigan (RTA) is weighing whether to shrink the size of its taxing district, cutting off rural parts of Macomb, Oakland, Washtenaw and Wayne counties from the taxes and services that would be part of any future transit plan," reports Eric D. Lawrence.
Lawrence considers the proposal in the context of the millage fee proposal that failed at the ballot box in November 2016. "A significant portion of the resistance to the 1.2-mill, 20-year property tax that failed at the polls in November came from areas that would not have been directly served by the plan to fund rapid buses on several major corridors, a commuter rail connecting Ann Arbor and Detroit, expanded local bus service and express buses to and from Detroit Metro Airport," explains Lawrence.
As Lawrence notes, the decision to shrink the size of the RTA's taxing district is still preliminary, and might require the State Legislature to weigh in before moving forward.
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