Ray LaHood, the US transportation secretary, announced  approval today of more federal stimulus funds for transit improvements in the Triangle:

$4 million for Raleigh to help start building a bus operations and maintenance center for Capital Area Transit, and

$900,000 for Triangle Transit to buy a van and three 40-foot buses.

Raleigh and Triangle Transit were among the recipients of additional stimulus grants announced in July. 

Try Transit Week starts Monday, and local transit operators will do everything they can to lure passengers onto their buses.

Triangle Transit will have prize drawings all week in a Go Triangle Scavenger Hunt with prize clues distributed to GoTriangle followers on Twitter and Triangle Transit Facebook fans. Prizes include gift cards, mp3 players and Carolina Panthers tickets.

Durham Area Transit Authority, Triangle Transit, Capital Area Transit and Cary’s C-Tran are pitching in to pitch these offers:

Tuesday: Rack & Ride Day. Bike riders ride the bus, with their bikes on the rack, for free.

Wednesday: Stuff the Buses for the Food Bank of Eastern and Central North Carolina. Bring canned food to donate when you ride the bus.

Thursday: Ride for free, all buses, Triangle-wide.

Friday: Operations Appreciation Day. Say thanks to your bus driver and fill out comment cards.

Today the governor's signature turned legislation into state law: Triangle residents now have new options to pay for ambitious bus and rail transit improvements, with $86 million a year from sources including a half-cent sales tax hike.

The whole state is affected, but the biggest impact of the new legislation is in the Triangle (see Aug. 14 story with reader comments).

"We commend Governor Perdue for signing this bill into law," said Berry Jenkins, co-chair of NC Go, a statewide transportation advocacy group. "This isn't a tax, but the freedom for communities and citizens who consider public transportation a priority to hold a vote. If a community is not ready, voters won't approve. But they should have that option."

If county commissioners in Wake, Durham and Orange agree, and if voters give their approval in a referendum, the three counties would collect an estimated $73 million a year from a half-cent sales tax that would be dedicated to local transit. No vote is expected before late 2010 or 2011.

Other new transit revenue streams would come from increased vehicle registration fees and a special property tax hike only in Research Triangle Park. In addition, Triangle cities also have new transit revenue powers, from legislation authorizing hikes in local car registration fees.

The legislature this year gave Wake, Durham and Orange counties, and their jointly owned Triangle Transit, new power to raise as much as $86 million a year to pay for local transit improvements (see today's story with reader comments).

All that was part of HB 148, one of the last bills to clear both chambers before the legislature left town this week.

But that's not all the money Triangle governments will have at their disposal in the next few years to start putting 300 new buses on the roads and start laying tracks for more than 50 miles of light-rail trains.

Raleigh won authorization (HB 394) to levy an additional $5 car registration fee for "transportation purposes," worth $1.6 million a year. Durham (SB 543) was authorized to add a $5 fee for "local public transportation" worth $780,000. And Chapel Hill was authorized in 2008 (SB 1748) to add an extra $10 car fee worth $371,000 for transit.

In a 37-9 vote, the Senate today gave tentative approval to a bill that would let Triangle voters add a half cent to the local sales tax to raise money for better public transit service.

The measure cleared the House in April and the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday. If it wins final approval in the Senate this week, the House will be asked to concur on a minor Senate amendment.

House Bill 148 would authorize county commissioners and local voters, in a referendum, to enact a local sales tax hike of one-half cent per dollar in five urban counties – Wake, Durham, Orange, Guilford, Forsyth – and a quarter-cent hike in Johnston and other rural counties that have public transit service.

The money would be dedicated to cover operating and capital costs of local public transit systems.
Triangle leaders say it would generate enough money to cover most of the cost of an ambitious plan to put a few hundred more buses on the roads and lay more than 50 miles of light-rail lines in Wake, Durham and Orange counties.

Sen. Neal Hunt, a Raleigh Republican, was the only Triangle senator who did not sign on to co-sponsor local-option transit sales tax legislation that will come to the Senate floor today. But when the votes are taken, Hunt will join other Wake, Durham and Orange senators to vote Yes.

The Triangle needs the money to build good bus and rail transit service, he says.

“We have major congestion on certain corridors right now,” Hunt said this morning. “I’m no expert, but I think the rail would do a great deal to relieve that congestion.

But he adds: Before local voters and commissioners actually consider hiking the local sales tax by a half penny, we need to make sure the money would be spent on a good transit plan. ...

A local-option sales tax to pay for transit improvements? Not this year, says Johnston County’s state senator.

Sen. David Rouzer, a first-term Republican, lives near McGee’s Crossroads in Johnston and also represents part of Wayne County. He says he’ll vote no today on House Bill 148, which would authorize local voters to decide whether to tax themselves for better bus and rail transit service.

“Not right now,” Rouzer said this morning. “Not with the economic recession that we have and the taxes that are already going to be put in place with this new budget. I just can’t vote for it right now. This idea of adding tax after tax … I just think it’s got to come to an end. We’re killing the taxpayer.”

The measure would not increase taxes directly. It would authorize county commissioners and local voters, in a referendum, to enact a local sales tax hike of one-half cent per dollar in five urban counties – Wake, Durham, Orange, Guilford, Forsyth – and a quarter-cent hike in Johnston and other rural counties. ...

The Senate Finance Committee today approved an amended version of House Bill 148, which would authorize Triangle  counties to pay for transit improvements with a half-cent local sales tax, a property tax hike in Research Triangle Park, and a hike in car registration fees.

Triangle leaders are pushing for the half-cent option to pay most of the cost for an ambitious plan to add hundreds of buses to the roads and lay more than 50 miles of light-rail tracks over the next 25 years.

The measure goes to the full Senate for a floor vote Wednesday.  If the bill passes second and third reading, it will return to the House -- which gave 75-40 approval in April -- for concurrence on a minor amendment added in the Senate Finance committee today.

The measure gives Wake, Durham, Orange, Guilford and Forsyth counties the option to hike the sales tax a half-cent per dollar -- if approved first by the county commissioners and then by voters in a referendum -- to help finance transit construction and operations.  It also gives rural counties the option of a quarter-cent transit tax.

It allows an increase in the Triangle of the $5 car registration fee that helps pay for transit -- raising it to $7 now and to $8 next year.  And the measure empowers Research Triangle Park landowners to increase their property taxes by 10 cents per $100 to help pay for transit.

Even if the General Assembly approves the transit tax local option this summer, Triangle transit backers are not expected to push for a local referendum vote this year. The expected state tax hike and the continuing recession would provide a chilly climate for proposals to increase local taxes too.

The bill's lead Senate sponsor is Sen. Richard Stevens, a Cary Republican, who spoke in favor of it at the Finance Committee today by telephone from his home, where is recuperating from a knee injury. Other speakers included Sen. Josh Stein, a Raleigh Democrat.

Whatever happens with the state budget, Rep. Becky Carney of Charlotte still expects the Senate to take up major transit legislation before the General Assembly quits for the year. [Crossposted from Crosstown Traffic.]

Carney is the lead house sponsor of House Bill 148, authorizing counties to levy a local sales tax to pay for transit improvements.

Triangle leaders are pushing for the half-cent option to pay most of the cost for an ambitious plan to add hundreds of buses to the roads and lay more than 50 miles of light-rail tracks over the next 25 years.

“We feel reassured that the bill will be heard in the Senate,” Carney said today. “We were told today that the Senate would take it up next week.” ...

Whatever happens with the state budget, Rep. Becky Carney of Charlotte still expects the Senate to take up major transit legislation before the General Assembly quits for the year.

Carney is the lead house sponsor of House Bill 148, authorizing counties to levy a local sales tax to pay for transit improvements.

Triangle leaders are pushing for the half-cent option to pay most of the cost for an ambitious plan to add hundreds of buses to the roads and lay more than 50 miles of light-rail tracks over the next 25 years.

“We feel reassured that the bill will be heard in the Senate,” Carney said today. “We were told today that the Senate would take it up next week.” ...