2009-10-24
I'm Voting No on the RTA
I usually try to keep this blog away from local news unless it involves a friend of mine getting arrested for something amusing or it could spark a geographically wider discussion. I'm making an exception for this particular post simply because of the massive number of e-mails friends in Northwest Indiana have been putting in my inbox, wanting to know where I stood on the RTA.
Well, some of them have been flat out telling me to oppose the RTA rather than asking for my opinion on it.
Anyway, as the title suggests, I plan on voting "No" on the referendum. To be honest, my mind could still be changed if I could find someone able to make a convincing case for it, but such a person has not been found.
My reason for voting "No" is two-fold.
First and foremost, when the RDA was established, it was established with the idea that the development they'd be involved in would be largely transportation infrastructure. Obviously, if we're now debating the establishment of a transportation authority, the RDA hasn't done the job we thought it was going to do. The only thing is that the RDA has failed to bring forth any acceptable transportation solutions and tax dollars are still going to them, forcing me to ask, "Where's the accountability to the people?" Now, if the RTA is established, will the RTA be accountable to the people? As far as I can tell, no.
Secondly, the approval of the RTA would be the first step to extending the South Shore commuter rail service to Valparaiso. The problem is that the line the South Shore currently runs on is at max capacity. It simply cannot handle any more traffic. If service was extended to Valparaiso with a branch of tracks, we wouldn't be able to add "Valpo" trains without taking away "Portage, Duneland, Beverly Shores, and South Bend" trains. This raises a debate about the usefulness of public transportation. The solution to this would probably be the continued addition of double-decker trains, which would handle the capacity problem. But with fewer trains running, the time in between arrival and departure times is going to increase, meaning taking the South Shore is going to become less convenient for commuters. And if public transportation isn't convenient, it's not going to be used. (As it is, daily commuters will probably tell you the South Shore is inconvenient already with regular delays. We shouldn't make it worse.)
Although these are the outstanding issues, I'm admittedly irked that Lake, Porter, LaPorte, and St. Joseph Counties are all paying the same flat tax rate, but that most of those tax dollars are going to be spent in Lake County alone. Perhaps that's fair because of the size of Lake County's population relative to the other counties (although St. Joseph is no lightweight), but there doesn't appear to be much in this for the other three counties besides an ill-advised South Shore branch that would add one or two more stops in Porter County.
Still, I honestly have no major problem with public transportation, the 0.25% income tax, or the idea of a regional body to better organize and orchestrate our regional development efforts (in fact, that's a good idea). But without promises that the leaders of the RTA will be accountable to the people and that the South Shore expansion to Valpo was off the table, I simply won't support it.
Thus, I'm voting "No" on the RTA Referendum next month.
