ANN ARBOR, MI -- Regional transit leaders are considering a 1.4-mill property tax proposal that could go before Washtenaw, Oakland and Wayne county voters in November.

Discussion of a preliminary agreement between the three counties and Detroit is on the agenda for a Thursday, Jan. 16 meeting of the Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority (TheRide) Board of Directors.

The public meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Ann Arbor District Library, 343 South Fifth Ave., in the lower-level multipurpose room.

“This is another step in sorting through the options to fund regional transit, and we’re very glad that the county has sought our opinion," said Matt Carpenter, CEO of TheRide. “We hope to give them meaningful feedback."

He said county commissioners reached out to the transit agency seeking insight on needs and challenges to discuss with other partners.

In November 2019, leaders from the three counties proposed amending the Municipal Partnership Act of 2011 to clear the path for voters in each county to consider tax increases for regional mass transit improvements. The proposal was introduced in the state House on Nov. 7, 2019.

Washtenaw, Wayne and Oakland counties look to exclude Macomb in transit vote

If approved in Lansing, the counties would develop a regional transit proposal that could go before voters. Washtenaw County Commissioner Jason Morgan said the 1.4-mill preliminary proposal is currently just an idea, with no concrete numbers in place.

“I’m worried some folks are taking initial discussions as some form of concrete idea. We have no idea what the millage rate would be proposed,” Morgan said. “We’re only at the state right now of being able to work on the Municipal Partnership Agreement and what kind of process should we engage in to make sure everybody is being included in the conversation.

“If the Municipal Partnership Act doesn’t pass, there’s no point in having any of these discussions because we wouldn’t have the ability to do transit in this way."

The Municipal Partnership Act allows up to 5 mills to be proposed.

The draft agreement to be discussed Thursday specifies that the partners would establish a plan to guide the allocation of funding and that 85% of the revenue raised in each jurisdiction could be spent on public transit in that county, while the remaining 15% can be spent in another area of the region.

In Washtenaw County, a 1.4 mill tax could raise about $24 million a year, according to estimates included in the agenda packet.

“We see a lot of opportunities for this, particularly injecting a lot of funding into mass transit. There are also challenges and risks,” Carpenter said. “Hopefully, we can point them out to the board of commissioners that those are things that can be addressed in further discussions.”

In 2016, voters across Washtenaw, Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties narrowly rejected a 1.2-mill transit proposal that promised commuter rail lines, bus rapid transit routes, airport services and a Detroit-to-Ann Arbor rail line.

Voters in Wayne and Washtenaw counties said yes to that proposal, but a narrow defeat in Oakland County and overwhelming opposition in Macomb County sunk the plan.

Transit leaders also proposed a 1.5-mill regional transit plan in 2018 that would have raised an estimated $5.4 billion over 20 years, but it didn’t appear on the ballot because of a lack of support from leaders in Oakland and Macomb counties.

The Regional Transit Authority of Southeast Michigan presented a new and more compressed set of ideas for a 2020 to 2045 vision in July 2019.

Leaders are now proposing a three-county plan without Macomb County, but are leaving the discussion open, should Macomb leaders opt to join the conversation.

“We have a lot of questions that we hope to answer as a community through conversations with our community,” Morgan said. “We have to get this legislation passed in order to have this opportunity.”

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