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    COTA Decides Not to Pursue Sales Tax Increase This Year

    The Central Ohio Transit Authority has decided not to put a 0.5% sales tax increase on the ballot this November, but officials are insisting that does not mean the end for a plan unveiled earlier this year to build new transit corridors and greatly expand the region’s transit options.

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    That plan – which called for five new Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridors in addition to major investments in improving the existing bus system and building out better bike and pedestrian infrastructure – laid out about $8 billion in expenditures through the year 2050, with the sales tax accounting for just under $6 billion of that total.

    The plan was developed as part of the multi-jurisdictional LinkUs initiative.

    “Nothing has changed about the 30-year, $8 billion plan,” said Patrick Harris, COTA’s Vice President of External Relations. “The goal is still to move forward with the east and west corridors [along West Broad and East Main streets]; those two projects are in the federal grant pipeline and we believe we can still find other local sources of funding to continue that advancement, and I believe that the northwest corridor [along Olentangy River Road] will also advance into the pipeline within the next year.”

    Harris described the decision not to put a sales tax increase on the ballot this year as a “pivot, not a pause,” and said that the current economic climate means it would be hard to get a tax hike approved that “would impact every individual within COTA’s service territory.”

    Recent national polling, as well as specific market research done by a campaign committee set up to evaluate putting a sales tax increase on the ballot, show widespread concern about inflation and a potential recession, he said. Those concerns were relayed to the chair of the COTA Board of Trustees, Craig Treneff, who agreed with the assessment that it would be best to wait.

    As for the other large partners in the LinkUs initiative – Franklin County, the city of Columbus, and the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission – Harris said that “there is 100 percent alignment [among the groups] that now is not the right time.”

    Local transit advocates are not so sure about that reasoning, though, and are worried that what COTA describes as a mere delay may actually turn into the end of the road for a plan that many of them were excited about and had pledged to support.

    “I’m deeply saddened that COTA has made the decision to not move forward at this time,” said Josh Lapp, who serves as the board chair of Transit Columbus and also sits on the LinkUs steering committee. “In the transit and bike advocacy community we have heard time and time again that LinkUs is the solution to our problems, to our community’s lack of investment and lack of willingness to create a better, safer, more people-focused community…now this appears to not be the case.”

    A city of Columbus official who asked not to be identified told Columbus Underground that the full $8 billion LinkUs plan is not being abandoned, and that the intention is to keep moving forward with as many items in the plan as possible before bringing a tax measure to the ballot in the near future. If the tax hike request were to fail this year, the official added, critics would insist that the whole plan be thrown out, and then another ten years would go by before the region could try again.

    “Even though this November is not the right time, there will be a time when it makes sense to advance this local funding initiative, because this is a regional priority,” said COTA’s Harris. “We’re going to continue to look at the market, and as soon as the indications are that it’s the right time to move forward, we will jump on that opportunity.”

    It will take more than statements and assurances, though, to convince Lapp – and others who have been advocating for more transit investment for years – that the LinkUs plan is still moving forward full-steam ahead.

    “We’ve had at least a decade of failed promises to make Columbus a safer, more livable, connected community,” Lapp said. “Almost all our peer cities are advancing on these issues and we are falling behind, and the recent announcement reinforces how far we have to go.”

    For more information, see linkuscolumbus.com.

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    Brent Warren
    Brent Warrenhttps://columbusunderground.com/author/brent-warren
    Brent Warren is a staff reporter for Columbus Underground covering urban development, transportation, city planning, neighborhoods, and other related topics. He grew up in Grandview Heights, lives in the University District and studied City and Regional Planning at OSU.
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