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The Daily Tar Heel
Town Talk

County must reroute budget for threatened transit services

After changes in state funding threatened local bus services last year, Triangle Transit went into panic mode.

The county’s transit budget — known as the Triangle Transit Bus and Rail Investment Plan —underwent significant changes last year and John Tallmadge, Director of Regional Services Development at Triangle Transit, reported those changes to the Orange County Board of County Commissioners Tuesday night.

“It used to be that if you needed to purchase buses, most of it would be through channels of the state government to get earmarks in legislation,” Tallmadge said.

A new government resolution created a formula for providing funding, which Tallmadge said provides fewer funds for public transit.

“We know we’re not going to have the grant funds to do everything we thought we could do, but now we are more optimistic about how much sales tax we’re going to be able to use,” he said.

Triangle Transit’s report said the half-cent Orange County sales tax would contribute about $1 million more per year in revenue than anticipated.

Tallmadge presented a new budget plan that includes this revenue and proceeds from government bonds to make up for the grant money lost, but the commissioners expressed concern about the reliability of the plan’s projections.

“When you’re making projections in public policy, you’re talking about real money that the public has to pay, and you want to get it right, but there’s really no way to predict that,” said Chairman Barry Jacobs.

Tallmadge and Triangle Transit General Manager David King also reported on potential transit projects that are part of the five-year Central and Rural Orange County Bus Service Expansion Program.

Triangle Transit and Orange County will collaborate to expand bus routes based on public opinion, including a possible service connecting western Orange County, Hillsborough and Durham.

King discussed plans for a new Amtrak station in Hillsborough. He said the project’s competitor for state and federal funding is a similar project in Lexington.

“We had budgeted $8 million for this, whereas Lexington’s project will be several times that,” he said. “We have an advantage there.”

The board also discussed the proposed Recycling Service District that would provide recycling services to rural Orange County.

The commissioners voted to throw out two options for funding the project: taking money from the Orange County general fund and relying on various recycling convenience centers.

“Funding this through the general fund I think is an insult to our partners in the town,” said Interim County Manager Michael Talbert. “I don’t think it’s fair for those residents to assist us in paying for rural curbside recycling.”

Instead the board will consider a possible Solid Waste Service Tax District or an opt-out subscription plan for recycling services.

Notable:

Commissioner Bernadette Pelissier said ridership for Triangle Transit increased by 11 percent over the past year and had also increased in previous years.

Quotable:

“What we’re dealing with is a little bit like one of those scenes in Indiana Jones where you have to walk between the shifting blades and you have to time it perfectly and they show all the dead bodies along the side,” Jacobs said about projecting funds needed for the transit system.

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