TARTA to seek levy renewal

The Toledo Area Regional Transit Authority board of trustees voted Thursday to place a 10-year renewal for one of the agency's two property levies on the Nov. 2 ballot and approved a drastically reduced service contract with the Toledo Public Schools.

The 1-mill levy for which the authority will request renewal from transit district voters generates about $7 million in annual revenue and costs the owner of a $100,000 home $30.10 in annual taxes. Its assessment expires at the end of this year, meaning that if it were not renewed, levy collection would end next year.

TARTA also collects a 1.5-mill levy that generates about $10 million annually and was most recently replaced three years ago.

Following the trustees' unanimous vote, TARTA General Manager James Gee noted that agency officials had hoped to act yesterday to place a half-cent sales tax on the ballot throughout Lucas County to replace the property taxes and pay for an expanded service area, but that plan was thwarted when current transit authority members failed to vote unanimously to accept the county as a new member.

"It is critical that we get this levy passed before it expires," Mr. Gee said.

Despite the opposition to the TARTA sales-tax proposal, Mr. Gee said he is confident the property-levy renewal will be supported.

"Voters historically have understood the need for public transportation and have supported public transit at the ballot box," he said. "Economic times are tough, and we're cognizant that everyone is struggling in the community. With a renewal, there will be no [new] hit on the taxpayer."

TARTA's two property taxes - collected in Toledo, Ottawa Hills, Sylvania, Sylvania and Spencer townships, Waterville, Maumee, Perrysburg, and Rossford - account for more than half its revenue, while only about one fifth of the agency's income is from fares or its school contracts.

How the latter will be affected by the Toledo Public Schools' recent decision to slash transportation spending to address the school district's budget problems remains to be seen.

The school district has eliminated all transportation for high-school students during the coming year and expanded from one mile to two the minimum distance around lower-level schools for which it will provide bus passes to children.

Consequently, the TPS 2010-11 service contract with TARTA is for just $967,500, or less than one third of the $3,350,000 it paid the transit authority last school year to provide student transportation.

TARTA plans to reduce, from 272 bus-hours per school day to 67, the special routes it operates to carry children to and from school. While those buses are open to anyone willing to pay a fare, their routes are designed for students and begin or end at the schools.

Mr. Gee said, in part because of attrition, the school-service cut will not require any layoffs, but it will substantially reduce work for the transit authority's part-time drivers and overtime opportunities for its full-timers.

What the transit authority doesn't know, the transit chief said Thursday, is how many students will ride regular "line service" buses to get to or from school in the absence of dedicated school routes. Extra buses will be assigned to certain routes that pass by or near Toledo high schools during the first few weeks after schools open late next month, he said, but it's still guesswork as to how many will be enough.

"We fully expect a lot of students to take advantage of the $10 weekly pass or the $40 monthly pass," Mr. Gee said, noting that some Toledo schools are selling TARTA passes on-premises.

But the school transportation cutback is "a significant change for parents" and the uncertain number of schoolchildren who will pay their own fares now that TPS isn't giving them passes "is going to be a new issue for us," he said.

Contact David Patch at:

dpatch@theblade.com

or 419-724-6094.