Quote:
Originally Posted by lrt's friend
Token service only for the desperate.
|
It took an act of the Tennessee state legislature to enable Nashville/Davidson County to put a transit tax on the ballot. It was not even possible to raise taxes to support bus system expansion until 2016 or 2017.
I believe that the state of Kentucky still suffers from this dilemma. The state point blank prohibits the existence of a local transit tax, either by a county or a municipality. So funds for transit have to come out of general revenue.
So when people out there lazily say that an area needs to "improve their bus service before adding rail", they often don't realize that it's impossible to do so without a herculean effort at the statehouse.
They don't realize that oil companies, car dealerships, etc., have huge clout in local and state politics whereas transit riders have nobody championing their cause. And when somebody does step up, they are smeared.