San Antonio Legislation Sent to Governor
San Antonio has been trying to get their local transportation infrastructure up to a level to begin addressing their needs. *Senate Bill 404* by Sen. Frank Madla now sits on the Governor’s desk awaiting signature. News article follows.
*Local officials eye tax boost*
By Patrick Driscoll
San Antonio Express-News 05/30/2003
Local officials are considering holding an election next year to ask voters to increase the sales tax to help pay for transit, maintain local streets, and build highway lanes.
A bill passed last week and waiting for the governor’s signature will allow VIA Metropolitan Transit, with voter approval, to raise the sales tax up to half a cent, in eighth-cent increments, to pay for items such as increasingly popular rapid-bus lines.
VIA would only get half of the money. A fourth would be split by Bexar County and the 15 cities in the agency’s service area to be used for upkeep of roads. Another fourth would be set aside as matching funds for highway projects in this area.
An election may be held in November 2004, said Shelton Padgett, VIA’s chairman. Voters might be asked to approve an eighth-cent increase, which would raise $17 million a year, he said. The agency’s budget for fiscal 2003 is $99.2 million.
Others have different ideas.
“From my perspective, I’d like to see us ask for at least a quarter (cent),” said Tom Griebel, director of the San Antonio Mobility Coalition, a public-private advocacy group that joined VIA to push the legislation.
But an official with Mayor Ed Garza’s office said it’s premature to say when an election would be held or how much of a tax increase should be sought.
“There are certainly other groups in the city that are interested in sales tax dollars, so that would need to be coordinated,” spokeswoman Leilah Powell said.
The pie is limited to an increase of just three-eighths of a cent because of a state sales-tax cap. And there are competing interests for the money ranging from economic development and job training to environmental preservation.
VIA, which has had deficits for several years in a row and is $469,000 in the hole now, would use its share of new revenues to stay afloat and expand or enhance service.
The agency will not pursue a light-rail system, an idea soundly trounced by voters in 2000, though it’s still an option in this bill, Padgett said.
Instead, the agency likely will propose a rapid-bus line along Fredericksburg Road, from downtown to the Medical Center. These systems use treatments such as dedicated lanes, signal-light priority and boarding stations to help buses look and feel more like light rail.
Meanwhile, another bill that passed the Texas House on Wednesday and is expected to soon be on the governor’s desk, will make it easier for VIA to extend its current half-cent sales tax to phone bills. However, it would be repealed if voters later approve the overall tax increase.
The phone tax would add about 25 cents to the average bill, bringing in an estimated $1.5 million a year, Padgett said. The money would lift the agency out of its financial rut.
“It’s a temporary Band-Aid,” he said. “We cannot go up on our fares. We cannot attempt to balance the budget on the backs of the working-class people.”
Current law requires that a majority of government entities in VIA’s service area approve the phone tax. The change lets a committee appointed by those entities implement the tax.