Opposition to rail tax increase already brewing

Correction (July 8, 2010 3:45 p.m.): Due to reporting errors, an earlier version of this story incorrectly stated when Charlotte voters approved a half-cent sales tax in 2007 for construction of the LYNX Blue Line. The story has been changed to reflect this correction. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for this error.

A tax increase that would bring light rail to the Triangle could also stop it in its tracks.

Citizens have until next year to vote to approve a half-cent sales tax increase to fund transit projects such as light rail, but opposition is already brewing against the measure.

“We will oppose anything that increases taxes of any kind,” said J. Russell Capps, president of the Wake County Taxpayers Association. “They tax everything already,” Capps said.

For 12 years, Capps served for Wake County in the N.C. House of Representatives. He said he’s never liked the idea of light rail in the Triangle.

“We have fought it and will continue to fight it,” he said. “Light rail is nothing in the world but trying to keep up with what other cities are doing.”

Overhead electrical lines power light rail cars, which can reach speeds up to 60 mph.

Light rail also averages $50 million to $60 million per mile in capital expenses.

The Triangle Transit Authority’s sweeping 25-year plan includes light rail, commuter rail, bus rapid transit and an expansion of existing bus service. In order to implement the plans, the TTA requires local, state and federal funding.

Passing the half-cent sales tax increase is only the first part in a complicated process that eventually ends in obtaining federal dollars.

“You have to have a robust local revenue source,” said Damien Graham, government affairs manager for Triangle Transit Authority.

The federal funding process has become crowded and increasingly difficult to navigate, Graham said.

“It’s getting more and more complicated,” he said. “The pot has not grown, but the number of applications have.”

In 1998, Mecklenburg County voters approved a similar sales tax increase that brought light rail to Charlotte. TTA officials point to Charlotte’s LYNX Blue Line as a success story: fast, economical transportation that could be a model for the Triangle.

Many other light rail transit plans have fallen by the wayside because transportation authorities failed to convince voters that the technology was worth paying extra money.

“Yes, there’s a tremendous up-front expense, but studies show it is more economical than putting down highways and all the expense to owning and operating motor vehicles,” said Bo Glenn, an organizer for Durham-Orange Friends of Transit.

“I’m sure there was similar resistance when they introduced the car, but something has to happen.”

Graham said the TTA has learned from the mistakes of other regions that failed to successfully promote sweeping transit plans to voters wary of tax increases in an economic recession.

TTA has been holding public forums since June to inform voters of transportation options, including light rail.

Linda Lyons, a Morrisville Town Council member, attended a public meeting Tuesday at the Cary Town Hall to look at the options.

“I think we do need to do something about the congestion, because it’s really bad,” she said.

When asked about the TTA’s light rail proposal, she shook her head.

“I’m not for that plan. I think we’re being taxed enough.”