Quote:
Originally Posted by SecretAgentMan
The study is in preliminary stages; while the city has determined that the project is technically feasible, big-picture questions such as how to pay for the rail and its service remain.
Bartels says the $50 million cost for the proposed line includes construction of the line and buying two sets of rail cars identical to those Cap Metro is using on its red line. It does not cover maintenance and operation, though. And Round Rock, like many Williamson County cities, is not within Cap Metro’s jurisdiction.
Bartels says city staff and officials are not sure what financing for the proposed rail link would look like, or whether federal funding, bonds or revenue from another agency would play a role.
“We’ve said, ‘Yes this makes sense,’ but we haven’t taken the next step about the funding,” Polasek says. “We’d talked about creating a tax increment financing zone for the ASA station to help fund improvements. … We haven’t looked at what would be required beyond that TIF revenue, and if there’s capital cost, under whose auspices would it be.”
Other Williamson County cities have also been studying ways to increase public transit options.
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Funding options are already listed in the Texas Transportation Codes.
The easiest solution is to join CapMetro; Or Williamson County forming its own transit agency. But that probably requires using additional sales taxes, which most likely these cities no longer have available under the State 8.25% cap.
For those ignorant of the State sales tax cap, 6.25% goes to the State, 1% goes to the city, and there's another 1% available that could be used for transit, economic development, police, lower property taxes, etc. But the maximum sales tax is limited to 8.25%. Cities have to pick and choose what to use that additional 1% sales tax for.
Presently, Williamson County is large enough to finance its own Transit Agency, like Denton County has. But, Travis County isn't quite large enough to use Section 460 that Denton County uses. But that could change by 2010, as Travis County is very close to reaching 1 million souls.
Note (1)§ 460.002. APPLICABILITY. This chapter applies only to a county that is adjacent to a county with a population of more than
one million.
Note (2) Travis County population (2006) was 921,006
Meanwhile, the option of joining CapMetro is still viable. On April 1, 2009, any election vote to join a Section 452 Transit Agency automatically cancels other sales taxes (of that additional 1% cities can charge) to no more than 8.25%. Read Section 452.6025 below.
http://tlo2.tlc.state.tx.us/statutes...htm#452.602.00
But I'm not sure CapMetro is based upon Section 452, although it's a definite possibility. But alas, there is no equivalent 452.6025 in the statues under Section 460. So two votes will be required, one to cancel other sales tax to make room for a transit tax, and one to add a transit tax.
It's a shame the State limits funding resources to specific scenarios for the various types of Transit Agencies. Maybe too restrictive. It doesn't leave much room for creative financing the Williamon County cities desire.
It'll be far easier, in the long run, to cancel economic development sales taxes, and just raise the property taxes to cover the already issued bonds, then use sales tax to fund, and operate the transit agency. Economic development opportunities are far more flexible under State Law than Transit.