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Santa Fe County Board of County Commissioners Chairman Jack Sullivan is recommending that Santa Fe County pull out of the Regional Transit District.  Commissioner Sullivan’s reasons are below:

• The RTD-proposed 1/8% GRT is extremely premature, given the level of planning done to date.  The Service Plan was not a demand-based analysis, but rather a consultant-compiled wish list with no real evaluation of unmet need.
• There have been no public hearings or public input in developing the service plan or the size of the proposed tax.
•  Santa Fe County’s priority transit needs are in Eldorado, the Community College District, the Route 14 area and connecting service with the Railrunner.  Service to the north and Los Alamos is, and can continue to be provided by the successful DOT Park and Ride program.
• City and county planning and transit staffs have estimated that about $450,000 is sufficient to handle these priority Santa Fe County needs.  In fact City/DOT discussions are ongoing now regarding connecting City bus service to the new 599/I25 Railrunner station (see Journal North article 4/24/08) which could reduce that $450,000 estimate.
•  The 1/8% GRT proposed by the RTD will cost Santa Fe County taxpayers $4.6 million per year of the $8 million total which would be raised.  This is ten times the amount needed.
• Only $3.9 million of the $4.6 million in GRT will be used in Santa Fe County – a loss to County taxpayers of $700,000 each year.
• The proposed 1/8% GRT will be in addition to a 1/8% GRT for Railrunner operations that has been proposed by the Governor and NMDOT which may be introduced again in the Special Session this summer or next year.  That will create two transit authorities serving Santa Fe County, resulting in double taxation and bureaucratic inefficiency.
• The RTD has been unresponsive to Santa Fe County’s needs.  For a year, the RTD has been unable to initiate a modest $100,000 bus route program for the Community College District and Rt. 14 area, despite (1) promises in several presentations to the BCC that it would do so, (2) the funding being available, and (3) the direction from the BCC that this is a County priority.  Given this track record, how can the RTD handle a total service program of $8,000,000 per year?
• The RTD has only been able to attract about $1,000,000 per year in federal funds.  The advantage of a regional transit district is its ability to leverage 80% federal funds for rolling stock and 50% federal funds for operations.  Any service plan should only expand as fast as federal funds can support it.  If we agree fund transit almost completely with local dollars, the federal funds will go elsewhere.
•  If we are to fund transit on a dollar-for-dollar basis, it will be more cost-effective for Santa Fe County to contract directly for its needs with the City and the NMDOT, and avoid the high cost of the middle man.
• While everyone agrees that some bus service is a good thing, all transit services are subsidized.  Should $4.6 million of Santa Fe County taxpayer funds be committed to undocumented needs, as well as to subsidize Taos County (239%) and Rio Arriba County (208%) and a very small district-wide ridership, including 6-7 passengers a day from Edgewood?  Could the majority of this money be used elsewhere for a better public purpose?

SOLUTION:

Withdraw from the RTD and participate in ongoing discussions with the City and NMDOT regarding the County’s service needs as well as the proposed 1/8% Railrunner operations tax and resulting transit authority.

FUTURE FOR THE RTD:

If Santa Fe County is no longer a part of the RTD, the RTD will still have a function of providing connecting services in the northern counties, and the northern counties will not have the concern of Santa Fe County (by virtue of its larger voting population) dictating their gross receipts taxes.

WHY IS IT NECESSARY TO WITHDRAW?  

Because of State Statutes creating the RTD, the Commission is not empowered to vote on whether the tax should be on the ballot or not, or what the tax level should be.  The RTD dictates that.  Meetings and discussions have been held with the RTD, and the RTD Board and staff have not indicated any desire to further reduce or delay implementation of this excessive tax.  As a result, the Commission's only option is to withdraw from the RTD if it wishes to prevent the tax from being on the November ballot in Santa Fe County.