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Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Rail Runner Tax Plans Advancing

By Dan Mckay
Journal Staff Writer
       Plans for a sales tax to support the Rail Runner commuter train and a regional bus system are gaining steam.
    Bernalillo and Sandoval counties are to consider this week publishing a legal notice needed to put the one-eighth-cent tax on the Nov. 4 ballot. Valencia County might do the same, though perhaps not until next month.
    "I think the Rail Runner's time has come," said Alan Armijo, chairman of the Bernalillo County Commission. Voters "at least need the opportunity to decide that."
    The tax proposal must clear one more step before going to the counties — passage by the regional transit board Wednesday. That board, however, cannot put the tax on the ballot itself.
    If approved, it will ask the counties to do that. Sandoval County has a meeting scheduled Thursday, and Bernalillo County has one Friday.
    "Mass transportation is where we've got to start looking to with the cost of gas and lack of river crossings," Sandoval County Commissioner Don Leonard said.
    Lawrence Rael, executive director of the Mid-Region Council of Governments, which staffs the transit district, said the tax would go into effect only if approved by a majority of voters in the whole three-county district. The votes would be pooled together, so it doesn't matter whether the tax fails or passes in any one individual county, as long as it passes overall.
    The tax is expected to raise $26 million annually. Half would help pay for Rail Runner operations in the three-county region. The train is now funded through federal grants, but they are expected to expire.
    The other half would go toward regional bus service, including routes to and from Rail Runner stations. Some of the money also would go toward rural transit operations or other commuter routes.
    The proposal before Sandoval and Bernalillo county commissioners this week would authorize publication of a legal notice for the tax. Approval to put it on the ballot would come later, perhaps in August.
    If approved for the ballot — and then by voters — the regional transit agency, Rio Metro, would spend the money and operate the system.
    Santa Fe is to consider enacting its own tax to pay for extending the Rail Runner there.
   

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    Rio Metro will meet at 5 p.m. Wednesday in the Council of Governments' office, 809 Copper NW.