Tax doesn't look so bad now

Voters may get to decide on a local-option transit tax

Triangle House and Senate members didn't go along with their Charlotte colleagues in 1997, but this time a lot of them are ready to get on the bus.

Most Wake, Durham and Orange legislators say they are ready to let local voters decide for themselves -- yes or no -- whether they should pay a half-penny sales tax to help build a strong local and regional network of buses, streetcars and trains.

The proposal, as part of a statewide plan to address urban congestion, will get its first airing Wednesday in the House Transportation Committee.

It's not clear whether it can pass both chambers during the 2008 session. But this year, with $4 gas pushing bus ridership to record levels, support is growing.

"I think it's absolutely imperative that we provide this option," said Sen. Floyd McKissick Jr., a Durham Democrat, one of five Triangle senators who are co-sponsors of the local-option transit tax bill. The lead sponsor is Sen. Richard Stevens, a Wake Republican.

The General Assembly first considered local-option transit sales taxes 11 years ago. The Triangle delegation balked, agreeing on only a modest 5 percent car rental tax that later was joined by a $5 car registration fee.

But Charlotte legislators -- with a stiff prod from Queen City corporate leaders -- voted in 1997 to authorize a local transit sales tax referendum. Mecklenburg County voters endorsed the half-penny sales tax in 1997 and again in 2007.

Charlotte used that half-penny tax to beef up its buses, launch a popular 10-mile light rail line and lay the groundwork for four more transit routes. The new train has stimulated a dense mix of urban development on Charlotte's south side. Its rail cars and park-and-ride lots are overflowing.

The Triangle picture has changed since 1997, too.

Traffic jams have spread as the three core counties added 320,000 residents in the past 11 years. The price of gas -- an average $1.20 that year -- has more than tripled. Commuters are packing the express buses that link Raleigh to Durham and Chapel Hill.

A three-county Triangle citizen panel this spring proposed a 27-year, $8.2 billion regional transit system and said a half-penny local sales tax -- a nickel on every $10 purchase -- would cover more than half the cost.

State Sen. Neal Hunt, a Raleigh Republican, notes that the bill has not advanced in the Senate and says he has not studied it closely. But he wants to let voters decide on a transit sales tax.

"If the citizens want to vote for it, I think they should have that right," Hunt said.

On the House side, five representatives from Wake and one from Durham are co-sponsors of the transit legislation. It sets up a transit funding system but does not provide new state revenues.

The first new transit money would come from the local half-penny sales tax, if approved by voters and county commissioners, and a $2 increase in the car registration fee.

Rep. Verla Insko, a Chapel Hill Democrat, is ready to vote for it.

"I think it's clear that we need to move more quickly toward transit than we currently are," Insko said.

But not everybody is on board.

"Before we look at committing this half-cent sales tax just to mass transit, we need to look at the other capital needs that we have in the Triangle," said Rep. Nelson Dollar, a Wake Republican.

Rep. Paul Luebke, a Durham Democrat, favors transit improvements but is not ready to pay for them with higher sales taxes.

He is pressing the same objections he raised in 1997: Low- and middle-income residents would bear the heaviest burden of a sales tax increase, he said.

"I don't understand why we as policy makers would select the most regressive tax out there and would not try to have a balanced package of taxes and fees that would include businesses and developers," Luebke said.

McKissick said low-income voters want the chance to vote on a transit sales tax.

"It may be somewhat regressive, but it also would disproportionately benefit low- and moderate-income individuals with better transit service," McKissick said.