Southeastern Michigan’s Regional Transit Authority Millage Vote

rta-logo-jpgThe 20 year Regional Transit Authority, 1.2 mil property tax plan is on the ballot in four Southeastern Michigan counties, on November 8th. The public doesn’t seem to realize that this property tax will be imposed on all four counties, even if one or more of the counties reject it. A big change from past millage requests specifically designed to shove this tax down anti tax Macomb County’s throat. Michigan’s tax-and-spend establishment really wants this tax to pass.

Ford Focus SThe RTA master plan is $ 1.22 billion in new fare revenue, $ 3.1 to $ 3.3 billion in new property taxes, and $ 1.7 billion in new Federal & State subsidies. A grand total of $ 6 billion, more or less. Let’s say that the relatively modest increase in vehicle revenue miles provided by the RTA master plan – 32% – doubles their ridership. That $ 6 billion cost, divided by 78,327 new passengers, equals $ 76,602 per passenger over the 20 year period. You could buy every one of those 78,327 new riders a new car and pay for their fuel and insurance as well.  Instead, RTA will treat them to the urban mass transit experience.

Urban buses and other mass transit vehicles have a special ambiance with their diverse ridership and high level of maintenance. This experience is enhanced by the faint aroma of pepper spray, plus the full array of odors you would encounter in a hospital emergency room during an overwhelming disaster – except for disinfectant.  Bus scheduling allows those too poor to visit a casino or play online slots at Wizard Slots the opportunity to gamble daily on punctuality at their workplaces.

Why riders are unwilling to pay 20% of the cost of mass transit, and why mass transit funding has to be extracted from taxpayers using the threat of foreclosure.  On top of this, mass transit advocates have to raid road funding and vehicle registration fees to deliver their ‘service’.  No free market economics here, despite strong support from the Chamber of Commerce types.

crc-100-years-logoThe Citizens Research Council of Michigan just released their Memorandum 1143 on the RTA millage request. CRC is an establishment outfit which never met a tax increase they couldn’t enthusiastically support, but their accounting & legal analyses are sound.

The gist of the CRC Memorandum is that the RTA is great way to increase mass transit spending by 50%, but it will further increase the very high property taxes in Southeastern Michigan and this could trigger a tax revolt:

The tax burden on property owners in Southeast Michigan is already generally higher than those paid by property owners outstate. Additional property taxes will only increase an already high tax burden. Property taxes vary significantly within the four county region, from a low of 20.9855 mills on homestead properties in Washtenaw County’s Freedom Township, to a high of 119.4440 mills in non-homestead properties in the City of Ecorse in Wayne County.

This will be a drag on Southeastern Michigan home prices because house sales prices are actually a function of their monthly payments.  Why mortgage interest rates play such a dominant role in house prices. Renters think someone else will pay their RTA tax, but landlords will shatter this delusion by increasing their rents.  Sadly, few renters benefit from this retrospective education.  Why the RTA millage is on a Presidential ballot.  Michigan’s tax-and-spend elites know their natural constituency well.

smart-logoNot mentioned by CRC is the fact that much of the RTA millage will be spent to offset declines in actual mass transit spending from other current revenue sources due to underfunded pensions and promised OPEBs. SMART’s pension and OPEB’s were about $ 220 million underwater in 2014. So the actual transit spending increase in SE Michigan will be something in the vicinity of 10% per year.

CRC suspect that if the RTA millage passes, there will be a subsequent tax revolt against the pseudo voluntary SMART millage and all the other transit taxes already assessed against property:

Transit funding in Southeast Michigan may suffer in the long-run because policymakers chose to layer the RTA tax on top of other transit funding sources and existing bureaucracies. In the short-term, local governments still retain the ability to opt out of the SMART millage, as 54 Oakland and Wayne communities have already done. In the long-term, existing millages for transit services are limited in duration and must be submitted to the voters for renewal at some point in the future. The layered approach to funding provides multiple opportunities for voters to decide against double taxation for transit services.

The potential reluctance of voters in an individual community or across a transit system to not subject themselves to double taxation for transit services may create holes in the system in the future.

Certainly, the antitax Republicans who passed PA 387 of 2012 will fix this minor oversight in the immediate future.  Their future campaign funding from the Detroit Regional Chamber depends upon it.

Here is CRC’s own summary of their RTA Memorandum:

Citizens Research Council Memorandum 1143
The Regional Transit Authority Millage Request
Memorandum 1143, October 2016

November Proposal
On November 8, voters in Oakland, Wayne, Washtenaw, and Macomb Counties will vote on a proposal that would empower the recently created Regional Transit Authority of Southeast Michigan (RTA) to levy a new 1.2 mill tax (one mill is equal to a dollar of tax for every $1,000 of taxable value) that would generate $3.16 billion over the course of 20 years. Unlike past regional millage requests, this question does not rely on approval from each county individually. The four-county region will vote on this millage request as a single entity. For the first year (2017), the tax would generate $161 million.

It is expected that the $3.16 billion that would be generated from this tax over 20 years would be used to leverage an additional $1.6 billion of funding from state and federal funds for capital projects. The $4.7 million would be used to support a Master Plan for regional transportation projects in Southeast Michigan.

The RTA was formed in 2012 under the authority of Public Act 387 to facilitate cooperation through a Regional Master Plan among the major mass transportation providers of Southeast Michigan: The Detroit Department of Transportation (DDoT), Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority (AAATA), Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transit (SMART), and Detroit Transportation Corporation (People Mover). The RTA currently facilitates state and federal funding to transportation providers, but, absent this millage request, does not have a permanent, ongoing source of income or the authority to levy other types of taxes.

Rather than replacing the operating budgets of existing transportation authorities, RTA tax revenues will be used to supplement and coordinate existing spending, increase service provision, and engage in significant capital improvements to create a cross-county system of rapid transit. Elements of this system include bus rapid transit, regional rail connecting Ann Arbor to Detroit, corridor prioritization, cross-county connectors, transportation to and from the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, updates to paratransit services, and improved local transportation. The Detroit M-1 Q-Line would also be absorbed into the RTA in 2024.

You Betcha! (8)Nuh Uh.(0)

  5 comments for “Southeastern Michigan’s Regional Transit Authority Millage Vote

  1. Corinthian Scales
    October 26, 2016 at 10:04 am

    And expect to read more propaganda like this where the agenda press highlights an 84-year-old dingbat that has forced the bill onto others for her entire life to cart her ass around : https://twitter.com/detroitnews/status/790925133540057088

    Cradle to grave government dependency, which is without question what that old broad pushed in her classroom. There's how all that Safe Space bullshit got started.

    You Betcha! (5)Nuh Uh.(0)
  2. JD
    October 26, 2016 at 11:54 am

    Yet another informative, well condensed/delivered piece.

    It has truly been a frenzied race to push through just as many generation burdening taxation schemes/crony giveaways here in Michigan (ESPECIALLY ***priority*** driven TeaParty/RINO approved note-vote-of-the-people-required ***pension'+'health obligation bonds***) just as quickly as possible since Republicans gained control. The sickening Granholm administrative era and their often bi-partisan legislative enablers (now) pale in comparison.
    Without TeaParty (intentional) self-imposed imploding grassroots see-no-evil 'cover' there would have been ZERO hope for what has inexplicably went unchallenged already let alone what will occur (with nary a peep) during our fast upcoming lame duck.

    Michiganders allowed the RTA and every other non-elected/non-representative/non-accountable "Authority" ever devised since The Crash to be birthed at the 'local' MiGOP level. Not one of us was immune from these easily established institutions and can EASILY tick off SEVERAL crippling TIFs, POBs or "foundation" (non-profit controlled) schemes in their very own neighborhoods. Our fight needed to be a local one centered around not only transparency but the obvious admission that term limits do not gel well with empty pockets or shallow benches.
    Instead, TPers chose to couple this ill-advised sad poison pill with an even worse notion of a 'part time' legislature solving 'full time' (plus overtime) problems for our grandchildren.
    The "intentional" wrecking of a grassroots conservative movement certainly takes on new meaning with the two above facts (alone) inextricably ingrained in our recent history of faux (see 110% selfish POBs) Michigan conservative 'outrage'.

    The only easily identifiable method of ANY corruption being effectively thwarted since '09 involved singular TeaPartiers angrily entering 'the Temple' and literally turning over the money changer's tables in an organized, many years long fashion.
    The fact that this rarely (or ever) happened is a testament to not only why/*how* this much corrupt legislation was/will be unleashed over our fast upcoming lame duck...but why bold moves MATTER when our children's future was(is) in the balance.
    This RTA is not the ONLY "Master Plan" devised over the last 7 years.
    Each depended (with many still in progress of all types) on "20 year plans" not being declared as ridiculous on their faces *minus* any details whatsoever or even the subject matter.

    "...the CRC is an establishment outfit which never met a tax increase they couldn’t enthusiastically support, but their accounting & legal analyses are sound..."

    Oh how the above describes so many of us in terms of (not) angrily overturning that moneychanger's table as we approach both this election and its (even more damaging) aftermath.

    I truly believe that our grandchildren will adopt this definition (of us) as well.

    You Betcha! (0)Nuh Uh.(1)
    • Corinthian Scales
      October 26, 2016 at 11:59 pm

      How long have been a pederast?

      You Betcha! (2)Nuh Uh.(0)
      • JD
        October 27, 2016 at 1:53 pm

        (Corinthian Scales):
        "..How long have been a pederast?..."

        Not sure what you're talking about...yet it's certainly been a long time since anybody mentioned the future of Michigan energy as delivered to our homes every single day (as insignificant a topic that it may be) or why the MiGOP could possibly be allowed to 'punt' said issue until AFTER our election (during a lame duck no less)...with so many Tea Party leaders over the years vowing(willing) to be dragged loudly kicked out the Party door concerning much less already a reality (no-vote-of-the-people-required pension *PLUS* health POBs but to mention one).

        Will there be even 'one' issue between now and say 'January' which causes Michigan conservatives to march angrily upon Lansing as their much more (seemingly) 'dedicated' brothers/sisters across the aisle did (quite demonstrably) in 2012?

        Do 'we' have a big fat rat to set up on the steps of our Capital? Or wouldn't that be possible due to the gasoline cans hauled up the steps of our Capital that day to fuel it as RTW protestors most definitely did on December 11th?
        Or will a Michigan conservative version 'protest' mimic yet another all-star prayer service with "no signs allowed" as NeverTrumper Beck insisted be held in the fall of '09 after the "embarrassing" 9.12.09 (genuine grassroots) march on D.C.???

        Or is there 'no' issue strangling our grandchildren's future right here in Michigan even on 'par' (or better) with the very energy that we(and soon they) depend on each and every day?

        If there was ever a time to go down (figuratively) swinging?

        It might be 12 days before the most important election of your grandchildren's lives.

        You Betcha! (0)Nuh Uh.(0)

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