THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, December 13, 1995 TAG: 9512130428
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN WEINTRAUB, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
Hampton Roads will need a new tax to maintain a decent transit system, the City Council said Tuesday.
The Council, which has traditionally opposed major spending for mass transit, voted 10-1 to support the idea of a dedicated transit revenue source. Without it, several council members said, federal cutbacks and increasing demands for other city services will devastate the current bus system and ruin any hopes for a better one.
A General Assembly subcommittee has spent most of this year studying the concept of a tax for transit in Hampton Roads, and is expected to make a formal recommendation at a meeting Tuesday.
At council member Barbara M. Henley's urging, the Beach council decided to send a message to the committee about its support for transit. Mayor Meyera E. Oberndorf said she would send a letter to other city leaders in Hampton Roads and Williamsburg asking them to support the idea as well.
Henley's resolution did not say how the new tax should work, though it suggested the plan be modeled on one used in two regions of northern Virginia, where a 2 percent tax surcharge is levied on gasoline. That way, people who choose to drive will help pay for those who can't afford or are physically unable to.
Current city taxes would be reduced by about $1 million - the amount Virginia Beach now spends on mass transit - to offset the new tax, according to the resolution.
``In a few years, if we don't have a dedicated source of funding, we won't have any public transportation, and I mean zero,'' Vice Mayor W.D. Sessoms said. ``And I certainly don't want to see that happen.''
Council member Louisa M. Strayhorn, a member of the board of Tidewater Regional Transit, which runs the bus system in South Hampton Roads, said the current funding system - where every community contributes as much as it can - doesn't work well. If one city can't afford to pay for a route that connects to another city, residents of both communities suffer, Strayhorn said.
``We have to have transportation in this city for those folks who do not have cars,'' she said. ``There is definitely a need out there and I think we would do all of the public a service by approving this.''
Because of federal cutbacks, to provide the same level of service as this year, Virginia Beach will have to contribute $1.7 million next year to TRT, Henley said.
Representatives of the Hampton Roads Public Transportation Alliance, a transit advocacy group; Virginia Beach Visions, a local business organization, and SEVAMP Services, a service-provider for the elderly, spoke in favor of the tax.
Council member Nancy K. Parker, the only member to vote against the proposal, said after the meeting she wouldn't want a new tax imposed without a public vote.
Parker said she also was worried that a new funding source will be a ``mechanism to establish a funding stream for the light rail, which I think is an issue that has yet to be decided.'' by CNB