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Why Vote For Repeal

Way Too Much For Way Too Little

  • $1.1 billion price tag in 1998, a few years later - $6 billion
  • Now, $8.9 billion... and counting...
  • Transit tax costs a household $155 a year, not $40 a year as erroneously claimed by some city officials - and does not include your federal and state tax dollars also applied to the cost.
  • Plan focuses first on being "comprehensive" as in "comprehensive" immigration reform; focused on providing transportation "choices" rather than focusing on transportation's biggest concern - congestion relief
  • Instead, plan should focus first on real means of reducing congestion such as: road intersection improvements, adding left and right turn lanes, widening key roads, stop light coordination, and improving potholed roads
  • Virtually no environmental impact
  • Overwhelming bulk of air pollution reduction projected from getting older vehicles off the roads, not from light rail transit
  • Virtually no congestion relief
  • Air pollution increases along rail corridors as density is raised along corridors
  • May remove at best 2-3% of commuting vehicles from the roads
  • 87% of all bus seats available ride empty
  • in 1995: 0.63% of all urban motorized travel was by transit here
  • in 2005: 0.54% by transit... a net decline
  • 22.5 mph average speed of light rail (slow)
  • few seats per train (hence "light" rail)
  • Contrast to NYC subway or Chicago L-train which are "heavy" rail - carry more people - go faster
  • No centralized rail hub planned - riders will have to switch rail lines by non-rail means
  • No airport access by light rail planned
  • No more Federal funding for future light rail lines likely
  • Property taxes already being committed through a process known as "tax increment financing"
  • Property tax dollars slated for investment in roads diverted to accommodate South line
  • Rail puts a "floor" on property tax rates: long term (10+ years in to the future) cities frequently must choose between cutting bus service and/or raising property taxes to keep up with the ultra-high cost of subsidizing light rail
  • Rail lines must be rebuilt about every 30 years, costing as much or more as the original cost to re-build the line - few local governments take this in to account
  • Ultra low population density to have urban rail
  • Will be second smallest city in USA to have light rail (Little Rock, AK - smallest)
  • Local roads now resurfaced every 20-25 years instead of the ideal - every 12 years
  • Road quality deteriorating
  • No plans to add any lanes to I-77
  • Transportation priorities misplaced
  • Information reprinted with permission from VoteRepeal.com. The opinions expressed in articles are not necessarily those of WSOCTV, WSOCTV.com or WAXN.