Texas Transit Association

With a finite amount of financing, the jockeying between roadways and passneger rail has become difficult for Houston’s METRO. Read about the Finance Plan in two news articles.

*Article i:*
More light rail and bus lines are planned for Houston after METRO board members voted to approve phase two of the METRO solutions plan.

The 25-year plan for mass transit:

Under phase two of the plan close to 40 miles of light rail and 44 new bus routes will be added to the Greater Houston Area. The rail lines will extend into multiple areas including the Galleria, Westpark and East End. Eight new Park and Rides and nine new Transit Centers are also part of the plan and bus service will be increased by 50 percent. Board of Directors President Arthur Schechter says the broad expansion is designed to handle the 2 million people who are expected to move to Houston within the next two decades.

Total expenses for the expansion plan are estimated at about $25.6 billion through the year 2025. Schechter says with the combination of revenues from bond sales, federal grants and sales tax, METRO will actually net a profit. But board member Arthur Morales, who voted against the financing plan, says it is risky to count on sales tax revenues because it is hard to actually forecast what those revenues will be.

Schechter says the problem of transportation cannot be ignored. He says he is confident that there will be enough money to cover the expenses of the plan.

The board approved the expansion plan by a vote of eight to one. Houstonians will have a chance to vote on the bond portions of the funding in November.

*Article 2:*
Metro reshapes funding plan, offers less track, more for roads
By LUCAS WALL
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle Aug. 13, 2003

Metro scaled back the first phase of its 2025 mass-transit plan Tuesday, voting to slash rail expansion to 40 miles while continuing to help fund local roads for five additional years.

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The board’s 8-1 vote to spend $774 million more on “general mobility” street projects means the Metropolitan Transit Authority must withhold financing for 33 miles of additional rail extensions.

With the plan — which includes continuing to give 25 percent of its sales-tax revenue to pouring asphalt and concrete in Houston, Harris County and other member cities five years beyond the current 2009 cut-off date — Metro misses out on the potential to double that money to $1.55 billion with federal transit funds. That led to the decision Tuesday to kill financing for three rail segments, those to both Houston airports and Fort Bend County.

The transit authority’s board of directors will meet Monday to finalize ballot language and formally send the plan and financing package to voters in the Nov. 4 election. The package envisions paying for $4.6 billion in new rail, bus, and road projects through 2025. Metro is expected to ask voters for authorization to issue $980 million in bonds to accelerate construction.

With Tuesday’s decision, Metro met demands from the county and small cities to continue doling out road funding a few more years, limiting that as a political issue in the election.

But the transit authority still expects a spirited battle against its plan from a coalition of interests opposed to inner-city rail construction, including suburban businesses and land developers.

Metro board Chairman Arthur Schechter said the fall campaign will not be easy, but polls show a majority of voters want the authority to build more rail. Houston’s first light rail line is scheduled to open Jan. 1; the new plan would extend that 7 1/2-mile Main Street line in nine segments opening between 2008 and 2019.

“I don’t think in the history of our community any effort has ever been made on any project to get the kind of community input and feedback that we’ve gotten,” Schechter said. “The future of our city is really at stake in what we are doing right now.”

Schechter said he believes the public will endorse the package. Houston-area residents consistently rank traffic congestion as the region’s No. 1 problem.

“We end up with a plan that connects all the major business centers, that provides access in some of the neighborhoods where we have the highest ridership,” he said. “It makes sense as an urban rail system.”

Two weeks ago, the board passed a 22-year transit blueprint that includes 73 miles of rail; an expansion of the commuter-bus system to 250 miles; adding 47 new bus routes that would increase service 50 percent; and building 18 additional transit centers and Park & Ride lots.

That plan did not include any provision for road construction. The board compromised Tuesday by maintaining the blueprint as a guide for future development but agreeing to seek funding for only pieces of it this year.

The two directors who represent the 14 small-city members had voted against the transit blueprint July 31 because it included no provision for roads. James Cumming and Thomas Whitson changed their votes Tuesday, agreeing to support the financing package because of the guarantee Metro will keep doling out road money.

“It gives both sides something,” Cumming said.

Taylor Lake Village Mayor Natalie O’Neill said she’s pleased with the vote.

“Once rail gets in place and the greater Houston community gets to ride it, taste it, smell it, feel it, then there’s going to be an outcry for more rail,” O’Neill said. “But you can’t just not fund road repairs and maintenance. You need roads to get to the rail stations.”

Not all mayors were content with the decision, however. Dee Srinivasan of Hedwig Village said she had expected the group of small cities to vote “no” Tuesday but three mayors agreed to support the plan at the last minute.

“I am not happy,” said Srinivasan, who expressed concern that Metro could dip into road funds for rail or bus projects without a written contract. “My thoughts are not printable.”

Schechter, however, promised during Tuesday’s meeting that Metro will not go back on its pledge to continue full road funding for five additional years. He said Harris County and member cities now have a decade to figure out other ways to finance their streets after the road payments expire in 2014.

Metro officials stressed that although they chopped rail lines to the airports and Missouri City out of the plan, they would seek funding for their construction later.

Art Morales, who cast the sole “no” vote, said he could not support the plan because he believes the revenue projections are too high and he doesn’t think Metro can afford everything it promises.

“The bottom line is what goes into the bank,” said Morales, an investment banker who represents Harris County on the board. “Although I do support rail, I have a serious concern about the fiscal responsibility.”

Concerns over whether Metro’s 22-year plan is fiscally sound have expanded recently, including a report issued Monday by Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Paul Bettencourt that states Metro’s tax-collection projections are $3 billion too high.

But Metro officials countered the criticism at Tuesday’s board meeting, contending they have built a $1.2 billion contingency into the budget and plan a $1.1 billion surplus in 2025.

Francis Britton, Metro’s chief financial officer, walked the board through a lengthy explanation of how he came up with the numbers that form the basis for the plan. He stressed that Metro’s projections are in line with the historic growth rates the transit authority has seen since it began operations in 1979.

Skeptics were not satisfied by Britton’s presentation.

“The sales-tax projections are too aggressive and therefore really shouldn’t be the basis for a sound plan,” Bettencourt said. “This plan, as adopted, is going to lead to either additional tax increases or service reductions. There is no other outcome.”

Barry Klein, a member of the Business Committee Against Rail, said his group remains opposed to the plan because it fundamentally believes rail is not an efficient transportation solution.

Metro consultant Steve Beard presented data to support the authority’s arguments that more mass transit will help. The figures show, for example, that the pumped-up rail and bus system could help eliminate the need for 82 new lanes on area freeways, the equivalent of roughly 10 new lanes on each of the county’s eight major highway arteries.