Wayne County Executive Warren Evans plans to present a new mass transportation plan Thursday to the four-county Regional Transit Authority board in a last-ditch effort to get a plan before voters this fall.

In his annual State of the County address on Tuesday evening, Evans said the revised transit plan he's been working on with regional leaders for nearly a year will be "bigger, better and more flexible" than the $3 billion, 20-year transit plan and 1.2-mill property tax that voters narrowly rejected in 2016.

The Wayne County executive and Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan have stepped up their push for putting a new regional transportation tax on the November ballot in the wake of Amazon.com Inc. rejecting the region for its new 50,000-employee headquarters, in part, because of what Evans called a "horribly inefficient" existing system.

"Not taking action in the wake of Amazon would be a colossal failure of leadership," Evans said during his speech at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson has resisted any revised regional transit taxing district that includes nine communities that have long opted out of SMART's suburban bus service.

Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel has said his transportation priority is fixing the county's pothole-ridden roads before expanding bus service.

Evans did not reveal specific details of the new transit proposal, other than to say it's "less reliant on capital investment" like the 2016 1.2-mill property tax and "more focused on increasing bus rapid transit service."

Patterson, who attended the speech, said he hasn't seen Evans' new plan, but he remains opposed to Oakland County's wealthier communities having to pay a larger share of the costs based on taxable property values.

"We'll evaluate it and determine the impact on Oakland and judge our support accordingly," Patterson told Crain's.

Evans, who has two appointees on the 10-member RTA board, said he wants the RTA board to consider his new plan for public comment and put it up for a vote.

Seven of the nine voting members of the RTA board have to vote in favor of a tax plan in order for it to be placed on a general election ballot.

"I believe that there is enough support for transit in the region to pass the right plan," Evans said. "If they vote it down, they vote it down. But I do think voters deserve a chance to let their voices be heard."

Evans argued that expanded mass transportation options beyond the existing service of DDOT and SMART buses would have an economical benefit, increasing productivity, reducing congestion and pollution and raising property values along corridor connected to transit.

"The business community understands transit benefits all too well. They understand recruiting, and beyond that, a need for getting people to work," Evans said. "Not everyone can afford a car, gas and insurance for minimum wage jobs. Especially when they live in a city with the highest auto insurance rates in the country."