Southeast Michigan is the largest metropolis in the United States without rapid regional transit. Business leaders have suggested that is one reason why Detroit didn’t make the cut in retail giant Amazon’s search for a second national headquarters.

“When (the ballot proposal) lost before …. we didn’t have the enthusiastic support of all the leaders,” Evans said.

“We will win if we get enthusiastic.”

Public enthusiasm has dampened significantly in recent weeks from suburban elected officials.

In a meeting in forum in late January at the Detroit Economic Club, Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson said “we don’t have a plan,” and joked about a long-discontinued light rail in Pontiac.

Oakland County spokesman Bill Mullen told Bridge the county expects to continue RTA negotiations for another 45 days.

But Macomb County officials are taking a “step back” and considering long-term financial impact of a regional transit plan, John Paul Rea, the county’s director of planning and economic development, told Bridge.

The county’s immediate needs are roads, Rea said. In the past few weeks, Sterling Heights released a five-year plan that needs $77 million in road funding while Clinton Township expects to ask voters for a 1.9 mill tax for roads in August, he said.

“Transit is an imperative building block of this region, but when we are faced with the realities of funding and long-term viability, we need to figure out how we can use resources in the best and most impactful way,” Rea said.

Paul Hillegonds, chairman of the RTA board, said a transit plan that does not include Macomb and Oakland, but only builds light rail and new bus rapid transit routes only in Wayne and Washtenaw would be expensive for residents in those two counties.

“Whether that can work is still a huge question mark,” he said.

(Editor’s note: Hillegonds is a member of the steering committee for The Center for Michigan, of which Bridge Magazine is a part.)

Crunch time

As the negotiations drag on, time is running out to get a tax measure onto the ballot this year.

The RTA board, comprised of appointees from the four counties, and advocates have said that the leadership needs to make a decision soon to support for a transit millage for November’s ballot so that a public campaign to educate voters can start as soon as possible.

Further complicating matters is that a request to renew taxes for suburban bus service also is on the ballot in August. The 1-mill tax from the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation, known as SMART, would cost owners of homes assessed at $100,000 in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties $100 per year and raise $70 million per year for four years for the bus system.

So, if the regional leaders decide to support a regional transit ballot measure, not only would the RTA have to educate voters about the benefits and costs of a regional transit millage, but also educate voters on how it would differ from the SMART tax renewal.