Public-transit proposal not going to voters

The mayors of Toledo and two suburban cities expressed disappointment Wednesday that Sylvania Township trustees blocked a proposed expansion of public-transit service from going to a countywide vote for a third time, but the trustees’ majority said they were representing their constituents when they voted it down Tuesday evening.

“In order for the city of Toledo and the region to reach its full potential, we need a strong, robust public-transit system,” ToledoMayorWade Kapszukiewicz, who advocated for better public transportation during his election campaign last year, said a day after the 2-1 Sylvania Township board vote.

The Toledo Area Regional Transit Authority “is not perfect” and “needs to reinvent itself,” Kapszukiewicz said, but it “has made some improvements” and the strategic plan it developed earlier this year— largely in response to the township trustees’ previous vote against a countywide service district and a sales tax to pay for it— offered promise.

“I was really hopeful they would get to implementsome of their changes,” the Toledo mayor said.

But township trustees John Jennewine andNealMahoney said, in different ways, they considered TARTA’s strategic plan to be inadequate and the transit authority failed to justify the revenue increase it would receive from a proposed 0.4 percent sales tax to replace 2.5 mills of property taxes it now collects as its local subsidy.

Mr. Mahoney saidhewould have likedtohearmore implementation detail about the strategic plan during TARTA general manager JamesGee’s presentations. He also said township residents were reluctant to pay for extending service into parts of Lucas County he said are opposed to it, such as Springfield and Monclova townships.

“Why should my citizens pay for more service to two townships that don’t want the service?” he said.

Jennewine said he supports broadening Toledo-area transit service, but “we’ve got to do it right” and TARTA’s inability to make a solid case in three tries is a sign of poor leadership.

He said he simply didn’t believe, among other things, the transit authority’s ridership data or its comparison of howthe existing property tax and the proposed sales tax would affect township residents, and he disputed Gee’s assertion the authority’s property tax revenue will continue to decline and force service cuts in the sales tax’s absence.

Maumee Mayor Richard Carr said he city has hadmisgivings about the TARTA proposal — particularly regarding how it would give Lucas County the third-highest sales tax in Ohio, behind only Cuyahoga County and a portion of Licking County where an0.5 percent sales tax for the Central Ohio Transit Authority is collected.

“Many people feel the sales tax is too high,” Carr said. “But I just think the voters should have the opportunity to make that decision, instead of just two people. Our vote was to allow it to be placed before the voters, not to say that we (city leaders) support it, or to say that TARTA’s doing a good job.”