Friday, February 29, 2008
The city has been the transit authority’s main financial supporter.
YOUNGSTOWN — Western Reserve Transit Authority officials made their last pleas for the 0.25 percent sales tax levy Thursday, saying public transportation is a regional economic issue.
“We keep talking about making the residents of Mahoning County more productive,” said Jim Ferraro, WRTA director. “It’s very difficult to do that without an automobile at the beginning.”
Issue 1 — the WRTA proposal before voters Tuesday — would make the transportation authority countywide and eliminate the 5-mill property tax in Youngstown, which has been supporting the bus service. The five-year levy would generate about $7.5 million annually. About $2.5 million in property tax revenue would be eliminated.
WRTA discontinued about 40 percent of its routes, citing budget insufficiencies last year. Ferraro blames reduced state funding and increasing energy costs for the financial troubles.
About $2 million in reductions were imposed through route reductions and layoffs. Weekend and late-night service was eliminated as a result.
“The sense that we had was that it has really hurt a lot of families,” Ferraro said.
At a board meeting Thursday, Ferraro outlined a plan to serve Campbell, Struthers, Boardman and Austintown with full-size buses. The authority’s most-popular route takes riders up Market Street into Boardman, Ferraro said. Some of the more far-reaching suburbs will be serviced by smaller vehicles, he said.
“We’ve been showing ridership growth for seven straight years,” said Ferraro, “with a good number of riders coming from outside the city in Austintown and Boardman.”
WRTA supporters rallied in favor of the tax increase earlier Thursday at the Chevrolet Centre. City council members John Swierz, Annie Gillam, Jamael Tito Brown and Carol Rimedio-Righetti spoke in favor of the levy.