Many urge TTA to hold assets, for now

Most leaders advise the agency not to hastily sell rail-station sites or give up car-rental tax

Steve O. Shepherd wants to know what the Triangle Transit Authority plans to do with the $10.90 in tax he paid Monday on his rented Chrysler Sebring.

Until a few days ago, he had no quarrel with the TTA's proposed 28-mile train line from Durham to Raleigh -- or with the only local tax collected to help pay for it, a 5 percent levy on car rentals. Then the authority dropped its bid for federal grants to cover 60 percent of the $810 million construction cost. TTA leaders said Friday that they don't know whether they can build the project.

"If they don't know where that tax is going to go, I'm not so happy about paying it," said Shepherd, 35, who was picking up wheels for a beach trip at Triangle Rent A Car in Raleigh. "You've got to define the use. If I know what it's going for, it might be a little easier to take."

The TTA wants Triangle community leaders to decide what happens next. On Monday, business spokesmen and elected officials said rail transit remains an open question. There were calls for the TTA to stop collecting the car-rental tax and to unload some of the 169 acres it has bought or leased for the rail project. But most people interviewed, including skeptics, said the TTA should hang onto its property and tax collections -- for now.

"Just because the train is not feasible doesn't mean that transit options are not feasible," said state Rep. Paul B. Stam of Apex. He said TTA eventually might need the money to expand bus service or make other improvements.

The Triangle doesn't have the population density to support commuter trains now, Stam said. But it might need trains -- and the land TTA assembled for 12 stations and 28 miles of tracks -- in the future.

"The right-of-way that they've acquired should be kept," Stam said. "In 30 or 40 years, we might have the density."

The legislature and the Wake, Durham and Orange county commissioners authorized the TTA to start collecting the rental tax in 1998. TTA trustees hoped it would be a healthy funding source for the rail project, but it grew slowly and returned only $7 million last year.

Land purchases halted

Wib Gulley, the TTA counsel, said the three-county agency quit buying land for stations several months ago after the Federal Transit Administration warned that the project fell short of cost-effectiveness standards required for federal funding.

The TTA is still negotiating the final prices for five parcels it condemned in 2004 and 2005. A sixth condemnation case was settled Monday when the authority and Robert Morrison agreed on a final price for land at a proposed station site in East Durham.

George Autry, a Raleigh lawyer who represents Morrison and others in their dealings with TTA, said business owners have suffered because of the delay. Not knowing whether they will lose their property to the TTA, he said, they can't make plans or improve the property.

"Who's going to fix the roof if it's only going to get purchased?" Autry said.

State Sen. Neal Hunt of Raleigh said the TTA should probably sell some of the land it has bought around proposed rail stops. Until the agency's future is resolved, he said, it should not collect the car-rental tax.

First make a plan

"Not until we come up with a plan," Hunt said.

Gulley said the TTA board could opt in the future to use the tax money for other transit purposes.

Philip R. Isley, a Raleigh City Council member critical of the rail plans, favored diverting the tax to improve roads or meet other pressing needs in the fast-growing region.

Ed Willingham of Raleigh, acting chairman of the Regional Transportation Alliance, a government-business advocacy group, said Triangle leaders should not move hastily until they decide what to do about trains or other transit improvements. The TTA should hang onto its land and tax collections, he said.

"We don't need to be quick to make decisions that would impact the work that's been done up to this point," said Willingham, a First Citizens Bank vice president.

State support uncertain

The TTA's original plan called for 60 percent funding from Washington, with local and state funds sharing the rest. Roberto Canales, assistant secretary for transit at the state Department of Transportation, said future state funding would depend on the TTA's next move.

"It depends on what their next steps are," Canales said. "Then the state can take a position whether it wants to support that plan or not."

In the past, state funding has been pledged only to match money from the federal government. Several local leaders said they didn't see a future for rail transit in the Triangle if the federal government won't help pay for it.

"The harsh reality is that it's going to be exceedingly difficult to do it without federal funds," said Eugene Brown, a Durham City Council member. "It's time to take off the rose-colored glasses, folks."

(Staff writer Ben Niolet contributed to this story.)