Portland and Eugene have arguably better mass transit service. They're supported by business and payroll taxes. I present that it is time for Salem Oregon to follow suit.
(SALEM, Ore.) - Recently we had two property tax levies to support mass transit in Salem fail. The first in May of 2006 because of the double majority provision even though a majority passed it, and the second in November of 2006 by a thousand votes or so, failing outright. As a result instead of increasing and expanding mass transit services there have been service cuts in September 2006 as well as others this past summer of 2007.
Even though service was cut by nearly 20% ridership has only decreased by about 7% meaning the services are being stretched ever thinner. The Wheels service that supported the elderly and those who are disabled but not severely enough to qualify for the ADA CherriLift service has had drastic cuts in service, to the point that it pretty much only serves its core MRDD (mentally retarded/developmentally disabled) contract clients and a couple shopper runs for Polk County housing. Service to the Salem Senior Center and Salem Clinic, for the majority of the day, is limited to a single bus an hour.
This is unacceptable in the state capital! Salem Oregon deserves so much better, as do its citizens!
I have heard that the transit board intends to seek another property tax levy. I think that would be a grave mistake as well as a colossal waste of time and resources. The voters have effectively spoken... the property owners are paying 75 cents per 1000 dollars in assessed for taxation value and they feel that is enough. But it is not enough to properly fund mass transit in Salem.
The district has plans, through separate federal funding, to set up minihubs in the north and south similar to the minihub already operating in West Salem. This is a good start and a good plan. It answers the complaint many make, often unfairly and through ignorance but made nonetheless, of huge buses rumbling empty through neighborhoods. In the minihub plan the large buses would only run between the minihubs and the central transit mall (especially once an east minihub is set up around the Lancaster Mall area).
They might run as frequently as every ten minutes. From the minihubs smaller buses would route through the neighborhoods giving coverage with greater frequency, say every 15 minutes or possibly every 20 minutes. There might be one or two routes that might continue to use the larger buses, maybe on a twice hourly schedule, such as the existing Lancaster Drive #11 line. Adding Sunday service and extending service to 11:45 PM are also real necessities, and adding Saturday and Sunday service to the CARTS service would be a boon to ridership as well.
Setting the system up in this manner will make it more efficient and convenient. Frequency will be increased. Also somone in Keizer or South Salem (or the east areas once the east hub is set up) would no longer need to go all the way downtown just to get on a different bus to head back in the same direction. The time spent on the bus for such riders would be greatly reduced. With increased convenience and frequency will come greater ridership, which will mean less cars on the roads, less wear and tear on the roads, less funds repairing and maintaining the roads and less need to expand roads (if the can really be expanded which in many areas they effectively cannot).
But how to pay for it?
During the last campaigns it was brought up that those who work in Salem or Keizer but live elsewhere benefit from the mass transit service but pay nothing to support it. The same argument is made regarding businesses that benefit greatly from the additional customers mass transit brings to their doors but who contribute little to its support.
Portland and Eugene, two cities in Oregon which have arguably better mass transit service, are supported by business and payroll taxes. I present that it is time for Salem Oregon to follow suit.
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Either legislatively or through ballot the transit district should seek, instead of another doomed property tax levy, to have put in place a permanent business/payroll tax to augment the existing property tax levy and provide adequate funding for the level of service described above plus additional monies so they can again build a reserve fund to allow for future needed expansions as Salem continues to grow and as the usage and needs of the ridership expand accordingly.
Why permanent? So that the city can have a stable mass transit service that it can be proud of, that does not risk severe service cuts every 5 years or so and avoids expensive and unnecessary legislative or ballot campaigns. Doing such will give stable funding to produce the needed service levels for at least a dozen years, if not over twenty years, before any tweaking might be necessary.
An additional benefit to this funding plan is that the double majority will not apply, as it only applies to local initiatives that add to local property taxes. A business/payroll tax would add nothing to local property taxes.
There are those in Salem who just oppose any kind of tax or fee. There are also those selfish and shortsighted individuals who refuse to support anything they do not personally use even when they have great indirect benefits from it. Luckily these groups are in the minority. The significant majority of voters will support services if they feel that the funding methods are fair and that the services provide good benefits. Continuing to try and fund mass transit in Salem solely on the backs of local property owners, many of whom are elderly and/or disabled and on a fixed limited income, is perceived as unfair. I cannot say that this perception is inaccurate.
I am sure that, as usual, the business community will shriek, howl, bellow and beat its chest with rage. Let them. They benefit from the business transit provides and in reality they will just pass the costs along anyway so I fail to see why they should really get all worked up about it in the first place. But people vote, businesses don't.
It also would not hurt to seek additional funds from the State of Oregon since Salem is the state capital. Oregonians should expect the city that is its capital to be a shining example, not a state embarrassment.
If we are to get more people out of their cars and trucks and SUVs and into mass transit usage the services must be seven days a week, must run until 11:45 PM (for the final buses heading out on their final runs of the night) and must have the increased frequencies mentioned above. Otherwise even $4 a gallon gas and a stick of dynamite will not pry drivers out of their cars and get them to use mass transit.
Salem has grown to the point that our streets cannot handle the traffic demanded of them, and in most of the central areas the existing roads simply cannot be widened without displacing thousands of citizens through long and costly eminent domain struggles.
It is far less expensive, less disruptive and more intelligent to expand mass transit instead to allow better and more efficient use of the roads we have.
I hope the transit board listens to the lessons of the past elections and moves forward as outlined above instead of just hovering in a holding pattern trying again and again for a property tax levy they will likely never get. And the ridership, and those who might become riders, need to speak up and tell the transit board what they need.
Most importantly, those who support mass transit in Salem need to VOTE.
Vote in favor of ballots supporting mass transit and also vote in city councilors, county commissioners and other governmental representatives who support transit and are capable of seeing its benefits to Salem now and into the future.
Mass Transit in Salem's FutureSalem-News.com