It’s official: No vote this year for transit fixes in southeast Michigan

As expected, voters in southeast Michigan won’t face a tax proposal this year to fund regional transit improvements.

The Regional Transit Authority of Southeast Michigan didn’t even put the measure to a vote at its full board meeting Thursday because representatives from Oakland and Macomb counties voted against doing so at a committee meeting earlier that day.

Thursday was the last scheduled RTA meeting before an August deadline to put a tax request on the November ballot.

Paul Hillegonds, chair of the RTA board, said it was obvious the board didn’t have the votes to put the tax on the ballot, but he hopes another plan can go to voters next year.

“I believe we will have regional transit. I don’t know when that will be,” he said.

The tax proposal was the latest of several transit improvement plans to go down in flames over the past few decades. Voters narrowly rejected the last transit plan in 2016.

The RTA board, which has representatives from Wayne, Oakland, Macomb and Washtenaw counties, for months discussed a plan called “Connect Southeast Michigan,” a $5.4 billion transit plan for new buses and a train between Detroit and Ann Arbor.  The 1.5-mill tax to pay for improvements would have lasted 20 years.

Several disagreements killed the proposal:

• Suburban leaders didn’t want a regional transit tax request to be confused with another tax request on the August ballot to fund the suburban SMART bus system.

• Leaders of far-flung communities that opt out of the suburban bus system also wanted out of a regional transit system.

• Other officials wanted more money for roads and advocated changes to the RTA’s governance structure.

Phil Bertolini, Oakland County deputy executive, said Oakland is not giving up on regional transit, but wants a better plan.

“What we’re saying is the Connect Southeast Michigan plan is not a plan we can support, but we are supportive of transit,” Bertolini said.

Wayne County Executive Warren Evans, who championed the plan, said he is "disappointed but not deterred."

Southeast Michigan is the nation’s only large metro area without rapid regional transit, according to Gov. Rick Snyder.

And some cite that as one reason the Seattle-based Amazon nixed Detroit from its list of potential places to build a new headquarters.

At Thursday's meeting, several transit advocates expressed disappointment.

Tom Zerafa, a founding member the Motor City Freedom Riders, a transit advocacy group, implored the board to consider the needs of senior citizens who can no longer drive.

“I don’t want to live an isolated life beyond not being able to drive, I’d like to be able to get around,” said Zerafa of Oak Park. “Consider the aging population that is relying on a bus service that’s going to connect them to life. It’s a life issue for me.”

Zerafa and other members of the group said they hope Wayne and Washtenaw counties would work together on their own transit plan without  Oakland and Macomb counties.

Idrees Mutahr, a member of the same advocacy group, said, “We need this plan and we need it to happen now.”

Rip Rapson, president and CEO of the Kresge Foundation, a major supporter of regional transit, called the transit failure a “tragic setback.” He said Oakland and Macomb leaders have not been “forthright” for months.

“Lack of support by Oakland and Macomb representatives on the RTA board will be long remembered as reinforcing a divisive status quo over regional cooperation, and for near-term over long-term,” he said in an written statement.

“Our recent failed bid for Amazon’s HQ2 should have reminded us that we – as a region – are in a nationwide competition for talent and investment. That lesson has clearly been lost on the leaders of two counties whose actions are ensuring a less competitive Southeast Michigan.”