Congestion and sales taxes
H 148 passed the House Finance Committee this morning.
It looks like the bill would help PART expand. Committee members talked a fair bit about regional rail service during their discussion this morning.
Here's the AP's first blush account:
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - A North Carolina legislative committee has approved a plan allowing the state's second- and third-largest metro areas to expand mass transit systems if voters approve raising local sales taxes.The House Finance Committee voted 19-6 on Wednesday to advance the bill to a House floor vote.
The bill would allow voters in Forsyth, Guilford, Wake, Durham and Orange counties to decide whether to increase local sales taxes by half a cent and car registration fees by up to $2, piggybacking onto Mecklenburg County's popular experiment with light rail. The state's 94 other counties could raise sales taxes by a quarter-cent for transit projects.
The committee added a provision allowing Research Triangle Park to increase property taxes on its tenant companies to pay for transit.
The bill faces opposition from Republican members, who seem to both oppose the potential for property tax increases and have a standing philosophical object to how transportation money is divided among the state's counties.
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