Regional Transit Vote back on the November Ballot

Big Four Find Path to RTA Vote

Regional leaders have agreed on a way forward to place a regional transit millage question on the November ballot. The Oakland, Macomb and Wayne county executives, the mayor of Detroit, and representatives from the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners met today at the Detroit Athletic Club to negotiate a solution following last week’s “no” vote by Oakland and Macomb counties at the Regional Transit Authority of Southeast Michigan (RTA) board meeting.

“I am satisfied that the accord we reached today not only offers something for our 40 communities and over half a million residents previously left out of the transit plan, but also incorporates the necessary protections we were seeking for Oakland County taxpayers,” Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson said. “I’m grateful to my regional counterparts who joined me in moving forward.

“In addition, I’d like to recognize the outstanding work of my negotiators, Chief Deputy County Executive Gerald Poisson and Deputy County Executive Robert Daddow. Their expertise helped us find a solution that is fair for everyone.”

Oakland and Macomb counties stood together last week at the RTA Board of Directors meeting to vote no on placing the RTA millage on the November ballot because of the RTA board’s lack of a super majority voting requirement to change the apportionment of transit dollars.

Oakland County had additional concerns which included the 40 communities and their 540,000 residents who would have paid $700 million in taxes over 20 years but received little or no transit services and the omission of an auditing mechanism to demonstrate compliance with the 85 percent requirement in the RTA law which mandates that 85 percent of the taxes collected from a county are spent in that county on transit.

“During our meeting today, the regional leaders agreed on language for both the transit plan and the RTA by-laws that addresses our main issues. Like President Reagan said when negotiating international agreements, we will ‘trust but verify,’” Patterson said. “Now, we are awaiting an opportunity to review the RTA’s ballot language to ensure it conforms to the agreement reached today.”

Patterson has given ongoing support for regional transit since 1995:

• 1995: Patterson supported Act 196 which allowed for the creation in each county an authority to levy and collect taxes to support SMART. He worked with the Board of Commissioners to get the SMART millage on the ballot. He has supported every SMART millage renewal since.

• 2001: Patterson backed the creation of the Detroit Area Regional Transportation Authority (DARTA) which ultimately was vetoed by Gov. John Engler.

• 2004: Patterson joined the leaders of Macomb and Wayne counties and the city of Detroit in the Regional Transit Coordinating Council (RTCC) in order to create DARTA. A court decision threw out the RTCC law because of a legal flaw in the legislation. Gov. Jennifer Granholm reneged on a promise to fix the RTCC legislation.

• 2008: Patterson joined the regional leaders to move forward again on creating a regional transit authority. He worked with representatives from Gov. Rick Snyder’s office to pass the legislation to create the RTA.

• 2016: Patterson and the regional leaders develop a solution to regional transit that is fair and protects Oakland County taxpayers and transit riders.

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