The Toledo Area Regional Transit Authority—one of the last agencies in the country to fund transit with property taxes—is unable to keep up with the times, according to an editorial arguing for a change.
According to the argument laid out by a recent editorial in the Toledo Blade, "[the] Toledo Area Regional Transit Authority is one of the nation’s few transit agencies still funded by local property taxes. It’s an inadequate, unreliable, unsustainable, and unfair way to pay for the 3.4 million rides TARTA provides each year."
The editorial cites the example of Grand Rapids, which, though smaller in size, recently funded and completed a 9.6-mile bus rapid transit line.
"A transit sales tax may or may not be the best route for Toledo. Either way, the people, politicians, and policy makers of this region can’t decide without more information. It’s time for a thorough, comprehensive, and timely study of how such a tax would work here," continues the editorial, tapping the Toledo Metropolitan Area Council of Governments as the logical agency to undertake the study.
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