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.
It cleared the House in April and the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday. If it passes second and third reading in the Senate this week, it would return to the House for concurrence on a minor Senate amendment -- unless the General Assembly adjourns before taking these votes.
The General Assembly is about to approve a budget with tax increases including a statewide, 1-cent hike in the sales tax.
The local option sales tax bill appears to have broad support, backed by an unusual coalition of business and road-paving lobbies along with environmental and liberal groups. But today’s vote will indicate whether this enthusiasm has been weakened by the state’s budget problems.
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. Local supporters have said they would not put a sales tax hike on the local referendum ballot until economic conditions improve -- in 2010 at the earliest.
In Johnston and other border counties, the quarter-cent option would help pay for extensions of Triangle transit routes that now stop inside the borders of Wake, Durham and Orange -- serving commuters who drive from their bedroom communities to jobs in Raleigh and RTP.
Sponsors of HB 148 include six of the seven Wake, Durham and Orange county senators – all except Sen. Neal Hunt, a Raleigh Republican. When it passed the House by 75-40, it was backed by all 16 Wake-Durham-Orange representatives except Democrat Bill Faison, who represents part of Orange, and Wake Republicans Marilyn Avila, Nelson Dollar and Paul Stam. (And Democrat Joe Hackney of Orange County, the House speaker, who did not vote.)
Sen. Neal Hunt, in neighborhing Wake County, plans to vote Yes.
Bruce Siceloff reports on traffic and transportation. A News & Observer reporter and editor since 1976, he took over the 
Comments
Good decision.....
Wed, 08/05/2009 - 19:10 — jepthasAt a time when teachers are being laid off, class sizes increased and so forth, it is a wise decision not to put for tax increases for bus riders who refuse to pay but for 11% of their costs, as Triangle Transit shows us. If people want a bus, they should at least cover the diesel bills.
I hope the commuters in Johnson County are paying attention.
Wed, 08/05/2009 - 11:50 — RonBSen. David Rouzer has decided you don't get the chance to vote for bus service.
When you are sitting in traffic on 70 or 40, know that Sen. David Rouzer decided that your county representatives should not be able to consider a vote for bus service.
How often does he sit in traffic? Likely never.
Johnston County deserves a representative that will let residents decide for themeselves.
Johnston County deserves better.
amazing
Wed, 08/05/2009 - 10:44 — John_Burnsmore proof that many of these guys are more interested in scoring political points than in actually governing sensibly and in the interests of the people they represent.
Exactly how would this bill harm his constituents? They would get the right to vote on their own taxes.
Horrors.