Transit money's worth

The engine may have jumped the tracks. But some local leaders are rushing things when they talk about giving up the sole source of money to build a mass transit system for the Triangle, and selling land that has been acquired for the system.

It's not even been a week since the Triangle Transit Authority, the public agency that would build and operate a regional rail service, announced that it would drop its request to the federal government for grants. Those grants were to finance most of the project, so missing out is a major setback.

Still, the TTA hasn't said that a modern mass transit system still might not be proposed. The authority actually hit the brakes because Washington changed the rules for localities to receive grants for such rail projects. That's a far cry from saying this region should give up on a sophisticated, usable transit system that advances our economy and quality of life.

Linking fast-growing Wake, Durham and Orange counties and beyond with fast, cheap (and less-polluting) mass transit realistically is a when, not an if. But the only revenue now set aside for a system is a 5 percent tax on car rentals.

From its start in 1998, the tax has raised far less than expected or hoped for -- just $7 million last year, for a project whose total cost has been put at $810 million. Yet state Sen. Neal Hunt of Raleigh, for one, says collection of the tax probably should be halted until a new plan is adopted. He also suggests that the authority sell some of the land it has bought for rail stops and development around them.

This land wasn't acquired on a whim, and it shouldn't be resold unless it's clearly no longer needed. Further, the TTA will improve its chances for federal help with a new proposal if it has a substantial pot of money in the bank.

There should be no haste to abandon the agency's revenue stream. Indeed, the General Assembly needs to be thinking creatively about how it can give local governments the means to raise more in a region where the population continues to soar and jam-packed highways are becoming an unpleasant fact of life.