 
Trainman
Member
Username: Trainman
Post Number: 750
Registered: 04-2006
| | Posted on Saturday, September 06, 2008 - 9:16 pm: |    |
There won't be much to operate with the SMART property tax or any operating tax such a NEW Wayne county sales tax, if we do not get mass transit leadership elected into top government positions. Nearly everyone wants our federal and state governments to invest in quality mass transit as opposed to expanding our freeways and roads.
Since the vote is now less then two years away, now is the time to get a mass transit leader for our new president despite how you vote next August 2010.
But who? Obama? McCain? |
Detroitplanner
Member
Username: Detroitplanner
Post Number: 1871
Registered: 04-2006
| | Posted on Sunday, September 07, 2008 - 7:57 pm: | |
Huh? There is a new transportation bill that should be in place by then. THere is a lot on the agenda for this one. How it interacts with the clean air act, crumbling infrastructure, a broke financing arm with huge deficits being projected for the trust fund, a need to address increases in transit are many of these issues. The transportation bill is usually non-partisan, but unfortunately full of earmarks that do not fund the whole project, or act punitively. |
Jb3
Member
Username: Jb3
Post Number: 477
Registered: 06-2007
| | Posted on Sunday, September 07, 2008 - 8:13 pm: | |
Detroitplanner,
Thanks! the last thing Detroit needs is more employees.
The same goes for the Land Bank Authority. I'm thinking that if nine positions were available for the LBA and were made up of established members of CDC's, Corktown, Southwest, Woodbridge, Creekside...etc. we'd see alot more done in the neighborhoods. A city level position (meaning a full time position) should be limited to one or two people with proven experience of completing multi-million dollar projects within urban areas. That person/s would only be responsible for tracking the submitted master plans from each district. (well, first things first, those full time positions would be busy for the first six months requesting submissions from CDC's and working with the community groups on those submissions to mold development growth).
But those same two people could be a good voice in the city on how transportation would best work in with the communities determinations. |
Trainman
Member
Username: Trainman
Post Number: 757
Registered: 04-2006
| | Posted on Saturday, September 13, 2008 - 12:06 pm: | |
A one half per cent four county (Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, and Monroe) county sales tax is proposed to fund SMART with a County Transit Authority tax in exchange for the same to fund the County road commissions.
This is because of the lack of funding from the state fuel tax collected and distributed by the Michigan Department of Transportation.
What do you DY'ers think about this proposal?
Other ideas in Lansing and our city hall's include making gas exempt from state sales taxes in exchange for raising the tax from 6 to 7 percent.
I want your thoughts and ideas on this. Thanks in advance, if you comment |
Mackinaw
Member
Username: Mackinaw
Post Number: 5357
Registered: 02-2005
| | Posted on Saturday, September 13, 2008 - 12:11 pm: | |
What does the president have to do with our local tax votes?
Speaking generally, though, one would think that any Democrat president would channel money to regional transit...but I would prepare to be disappointed on that (especially with the big plans for socialized medicine). McCain claims he will reduce spending big time, but he really does pick and choose, and he has a lot of environmental/sustainability programs that will be costly and yet he supports. I could see him being in favor of more funds for transit, but in the end this money is coming from congress and certain congresspeople's ability to get projects included on the budget. Contact your congresspeople. |
Russix
Member
Username: Russix
Post Number: 132
Registered: 11-2006
| | Posted on Saturday, September 13, 2008 - 4:23 pm: | |
I've googled this 1/2 percent four county tax for SMART a few times and haven't found anything. Anybody have any links to this? Thank you. |
Trainman
Member
Username: Trainman
Post Number: 763
Registered: 04-2006
| | Posted on Saturday, September 13, 2008 - 9:20 pm: | |
Go to a Transportation Riders United TRU meeting and ask. This group has been lobbying to change the state constitution for a long time.
Regional and local Sales taxes are now a common way to pay for the operating costs of a transit authority.
If you google this, you will get results but it is not well known in Michigan or made public. Supporting a new tax mechanism is not a way for someone to get elected but there are elected officials in Michigan who do support county and possible local sales taxes which are still illegal in Michigan. |
Detroitplanner
Member
Username: Detroitplanner
Post Number: 1887
Registered: 04-2006
| | Posted on Sunday, September 14, 2008 - 6:53 am: | |
Russix, the reason you can't find anything is because it is currently illegal for any government in Michigan besides the State to have a sales tax.
Trainman, the federal trust fund that provides money for transportation projects will be $8 billion in the hole next year. This is the 19 cent per gallon tax. The shortfall comes from people driving less due to higher gas prices. This fund is quite flexible, you can use much of the money to fund either highway preservation or transit projects. There are certain pots that can't be touched other than for projects that provide bike paths, landscaping, provide transit for the poor, or projects that improve or clean the air. Millions of highway funds are spent on transit projects every year in the Detroit area, but transit funds have never been used to fund highway projects. |
Danny
Member
Username: Danny
Post Number: 7739
Registered: 02-2004
| | Posted on Sunday, September 14, 2008 - 9:42 am: | |
I will vote YES YES YES! on the SMART Property Tax Renewal. |
Detroitplanner
Member
Username: Detroitplanner
Post Number: 1890
Registered: 04-2006
| | Posted on Sunday, September 14, 2008 - 7:34 pm: | |
Too bad that if you live in the City you can't vote for the tax. I'd rather have a portion of my taxes go to SMART than into the general fund. |
Trainman
Member
Username: Trainman
Post Number: 764
Registered: 04-2006
| | Posted on Sunday, September 14, 2008 - 10:53 pm: | |
Danny,
How can we get leadership in Lansing to get Livonia to opt back in, so your YES vote counts to improve mass transit for all residents in southeast Michigan? |
Upinottawa
Member
Username: Upinottawa
Post Number: 1135
Registered: 09-2005
| | Posted on Monday, September 15, 2008 - 11:40 am: | |
Trainman is engaging Danny in conversation. This ought to be fun....  |
Danny
Member
Username: Danny
Post Number: 7744
Registered: 02-2004
| | Posted on Monday, September 15, 2008 - 12:41 pm: | |
Trainman,
A YES vote would mean more SMART busses running in their original routes. A NO vote would mean NO more SMART busses coming to your town.
That is why this SMART Property Tax Millage WILL and MUST pass. Public regional transit is the answer to our automobile crisis, slows down greenhouses emissions and helping disable people get to their destinations.
Word from the Street Prophet
Gas prices will not be going down to the those quarters and pennies any more. So you all have 2 options, save money and gas by riding the bus or guzzle up on those polluting cars and watch your money dissapear from out of your wallets at the same time. |
Trainman
Member
Username: Trainman
Post Number: 765
Registered: 04-2006
| | Posted on Monday, September 15, 2008 - 10:24 pm: | |
Danny,
Strong mass transit leadership will allow the fuel tax to remain for SMART to get more federal funding to buy more buses. This will make the property tax work.
But, Danny how can we get our leaders to do this? |
Thecarl
Member
Username: Thecarl
Post Number: 1333
Registered: 04-2005
| | Posted on Monday, September 15, 2008 - 11:18 pm: | |
i'm tired of buses which arrive late with ear-piercing brakes and unpadded seats that are too small and reek of the urine of the criminally insane. |
Professorscott
Member
Username: Professorscott
Post Number: 1623
Registered: 12-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 16, 2008 - 12:29 am: | |
The urine of the criminally insane has a particular smell? I had no idea.
Not sure which buses have unpadded seats; none that I ride. The seats are big enough for me but not for all riders.
And ear-piercing brakes? Sounds like SMART to me! |
Danny
Member
Username: Danny
Post Number: 7747
Registered: 02-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 16, 2008 - 8:27 am: | |
Trainman,
One of our proud leaders Carolyn Cheeks-Kilpatrick made it possible to lure new SMART and D-DOT busses into our district. The rest of the community leaders like you made it possible to contribute their pennies and quarters of the their property tax monies to keep the SMART bus running. Public transit is part of economic structure. Without it more jobs would disappear, people with disabilities won't do their daily living errands, most students won't get to their schools, most people won't see their friends from far away places.
Detroit maybe the motor capital of the world, but it needs public transit. Not that many people drive cars. So you Trainman, as a liberator of public mass transit, make the right choice. Vote YES for the SMART Property Tax Millage for the year 2010. We must keep the SMART busses moving and pick up more riders. |
Trainman
Member
Username: Trainman
Post Number: 767
Registered: 04-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 16, 2008 - 9:11 pm: | |
Danny,
You did not answer my question.
Sure, the SMART property tax could help many people but the necessary high costs of mass transit is being pushed on local communities without protecting existing tax funds which is evidenced by the Livonia opt. out. |
Thecarl
Member
Username: Thecarl
Post Number: 1335
Registered: 04-2005
| | Posted on Saturday, September 20, 2008 - 5:44 pm: | |
professorscott, quoted:
quote:The urine of the criminally insane has a particular smell? I had no idea.
Not sure which buses have unpadded seats; none that I ride. The seats are big enough for me but not for all riders.
And ear-piercing brakes? Sounds like SMART to me!
uggh - it's only certain lines - but the smart 200 line (michigan ave), for example, has a high percentage of buses that have been used as a toilet. one might think that opening a window would provide a respite of fresh air - but in reality, the ventilation creates a venturi which only thrusts the noxious afterfumes of bodily discharge into the faces of all passengers.
the smart buses have seats which are not padded. the smart buses have seats which are decorated with patches of cloth designating where padding would be desirable; however, the cloth, with its alluring colors and contemporary design, only serves to make the bus look less sterile and institutional. beneath the fabric is hard plastic, such that the seats are well-suited for the testing of superballs, and games of quarter-bounce.
additionally, the smart-bus seats accommodate my modest dimensions in the most miserly fashion imaginable. the spreading of elbows necessary to read a newspaper, or operate a laptop computer, is awkward and intrusive if the bus has a significant number of passengers. also awkward and intrusive is having anyone of significant girth seated next to you - and i'm sure you're well aware of the physical dimensions worn by so many of the folks in southeast michigan.
and the brakes! my goodness! don't even dare waiting at the bus stop with fine crystal in your belongings. what's the deal with the squealing? |