Residents favor transit tax vote

Poll finds support for voters' deciding how to pay for transportation needs

A statewide poll finds that North Carolinians want the chance to consider raising local sales taxes and issuing state bonds to pay for better roads and transit service.

Most of the 473 adults surveyed last week by Elon University said they didn't want to pay higher taxes on fuel, cars or property to support transportation improvements they agreed were needed.

But 58 percent favored giving local government the option to use a half-cent sales tax to pay for bus and rail transit service.

And more than 73 percent said local voters should be allowed to decide in a referendum whether to levy a half-cent sales tax to pay for road and transit improvements.

At the state level, 66 percent favored a $2 billion statewide bond referendum for road, bridge and other transportation projects.

"That's a lot of money, and for them to support it at 66 percent says a lot," said Hunter Bacot, director of the Elon University Poll. He said the survey results show that voters are willing to do their part to improve transportation.

"But they want everybody to have the same responsibility, to pay the same," Bacot said.

The co-chairman of a Triangle transit advisory panel said the Elon findings show that voters are ready to consider a transit sales tax.

"I think people understand there's no free lunch," said George Cianciolo of Chapel Hill, a Duke University pathologist who is co-chairman of the Special Transit Advisory Commission. The group is preparing recommendations for a local sales-tax vote to help pay for long-term bus and rail transit projects across the Triangle.

"We believe the voters will support a tax increase for transit," Cianciolo said. "If we're wrong and a majority of voters don't want it, I think the process has worked well.

"I think the worst thing would be if the elected officials don't let the citizens decide," Cianciolo said.

A similar effort is under way at the state level, with a 24-member committee preparing transportation spending proposals for the General Assembly.

The 21st Century Transportation Committee is considering recommendations including a statewide transportation bond issue and local options to raise sales taxes for transit projects.