Mayor Bill Bell took a few minutes of Monday's city council meeting to plug the sales-tax proposals on today's Durham County ballots.

"We have two very important referendums," he said, referring to the half-cent tax for public transit and quarter-cent tax for education. The city council has endorsed both.

Bell has been a strong proponent of a unified transit system serving Durham, Wake and Orange counties. Much of the revenue from the transit tax is for Durham's portions of passenger-rail lines between downtown Durham and UNC Hospitals and eastern Wake County, as well as expanded bus service.

"Hopefully, we will set the pace for other counties to follow," Bell said, before showing a seven-minute video depicting successes for a 10-mile light-rail line in Mecklenburg County.

"It really highlights the attributes of the system in Charlotte," Bell said. "Similar to what will happen if the referendum is supported in Durham."