Ypsilanti resident David Johnson boards a bus at the Ypsilanti Transit Center to attend class at Washtenaw Community College. Johnson said he uses the bus daily and would have to do more walking if service were cut.
Tom Perkins | For AnnArbor.com
He and his wife live nearby, and she recently got a job at Visteon working the same shift he works at the University of Michigan Hospital. That means he will ride the bus to work everyday. Without the bus service, he says he would likely be forced to buy a second car because there's no cheap transportation alternative in the region.
“The bus system has to be top of the line because without the bus routes a lot of people wouldn’t be able to get to work or to where they’re going,” he said.
That's why Womack plans to vote for a charter amendment that will provide a dedicated source of funding for public transportation. The .9789 mill Headlee Amendment override would allow the city to levy the full 20 mills in taxes allowed by the state instead of the 19.0211 mills it currently levies because of Headlee rollbacks
That new tax would provide an additional $281,000 for public transportation in its first year and mean a home with a taxable value of $100,000 will pay an additional $97.80 per year. But officials have pointed out that property taxes are likely to drop far more than the roughly 1.5 percent increase the charter amendment would represent.
The Headlee Amendment rolls back the millage rate in a municipality when the assessed value of all taxable property, excluding new construction and improvements, increases by more than the inflation rate. If that happens, the maximum authorized property tax rate must be reduced so that the same gross revenue, adjusted for inflation, is collected as before.
The proposal appeared on the Aug. 3 primary ballot but did not count because charter amendments cannot be decided on primary ballots. The proposal that will appear on the November ballot is the same, but this time the vote will count. Roughly 70 percent of voters approved the measure on the invalid vote.
The City of Ypsilanti’s budget projects the city will spend $218,000 on public transportation in fiscal year 2011 and $281,000 in fiscal year 2012. That money will come from an already tight general fund if the charter amendment is not approved, but the Headlee Override would provide dedicated funding each year.
Area residents board the bus at the Ypsilanti Transit Center.
Tom Perkins | For AnnArbor.com
City Council approved a 21-month contract with the AATA in September 2009 that provided for bus service through June 30, 2011, at a cost of $312,000. Part of that cost was paid for with a one-time allotment of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act dollars.
But that agreement relies on other communities continuing to be able to pay for the service levels they currently have, which worries Ypsilanti Mayor Paul Schreiber.
“It’s a house of cards,” he said. “If one municipality decides to cut it back, it cuts back service for everybody.”
When the current contract was negotiated, city officials hoped a discussed countywide busing plan would materialize, but it has not. Should the AATA establish a countywide busing plan, the city will not need to levy the tax unless a new rate structure is required to make up the difference.
Council Member Pete Murdock said he first brought up the idea of a dedicated source of funding in 2005, but it didn’t gain much support. Now that the city’s financial picture has worsened and the countywide busing plan has not panned out, the city “needs to take care of business.”
“Failure is not an option. We have got to make sure it passes,” Murdock said.
According to the AATA statistics, an average 47 people board a bus each “service hour” in Ypsilanti. In the AATA system as a whole, that average is around 32 people per service hour.
“The service in Ypsilanti is quite productive - it definitely does well,” Chris White, manager of services development for the AATA, said.
Last year the AATA sent out a survey asking riders why they use the bus. Roughly 40 percent said they use it for school, 35 percent said they use it for work, and 23 percent said for shopping.
Richard Murphy is the co-chairman of Keep Ypsi Rollin’, a group formed to campaign for the charter amendment. He said loss of public transportation service would negatively impact the neighborhoods and community because it would force many people to move closer to their jobs outside of Ypsilanti or, as in the case of Womack, buy a second car.
“That’s something we’ve heard when out talking to younger households or renters ... “I’m living in Ypsi because I can get to Ann Arbor. If we didn’t have that choice we'd move to Ann Arbor rather than buy a car or buy a second car,’” Murphy said.
“At the neighborhood level, getting back and forth to Ann Arbor is important to Ypsilanti residents and the bus system is a pretty important part of making that happen.”
Murphy is employed by the Michigan Suburbs Alliance. It recently completed a study asking people 18 to 35 years old about their main concerns in the region. He said 75 percent of respondents listed a lack of public transportation as a problem, while 60 percent considered availability of jobs an issue.
Although the study did not include Washtenaw County, the AATA’s service provides Ypsilanti with a competitive advantage in attracting younger people, Murphy said.
“It's one of the places in the region that’s pretty well served and can attract those households that say they want public transportation,” he said.
The results of the invalid August primary vote were encouraging to Keep Ypsi Rollin, but the group is working to ensure that residents understand the first vote didn’t count. Murphy said members of the group are also concerned that voters might forget about or skip over the charter amendment because of the November ballot’s length.
“It’s easy for people to get overwhelmed by everything that’s going on right now, so we’re just making sure that this is clear in people’s mind and not something that gets lost in the pile,” he said.
Tom Perkins is a freelance reporter for AnnArbor.com. To reach the news desk, e-mail news@annarbor.com or call 734-623-2530. For more Ypsilanti stories, visit our Ypsilanti page.
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