Welcome to Columbia: $100 million in tax dollars for failed Innovista project but none to support bus service. (Charleston: sales)

[g-man430]

Pretty sad a city with a major university in their downtown can't seem to find any money to support the bus service but can find $100 million to support the failed Innovista project: Bus service faces deep cuts - Newsletters - TheState.com (http://www.thestate.com/2010/11/27/1579494/bus-service-would-be-slashed.html#disqus_thread - broken link) Don't drop the soap.

[Charlestondata]

Several recent articles show how Innovista is thriving and bringing in new research dollars, and it ain't over till it's over with the bus system.

[Akhenaton06]

Originally Posted by g-man430

Pretty sad a city with a major university in their downtown can't seem to find any money to support the bus service but can find $100 million to support the failed Innovista project: Bus service faces deep cuts - Newsletters - TheState.com (http://www.thestate.com/2010/11/27/1579494/bus-service-would-be-slashed.html#disqus_thread - broken link) Don't drop the soap.

Show me where the city has spent $100 million on Innovista. You can't because that's a flat-out lie.

Furthermore, the issue with bus service is not a one-time lump sum of money, but a permanent funding source. It really helps to know what you're talking about before you start flapping your gums.

[Akhenaton06]

Originally Posted by g-man430

Ok, you're right. Not the city itself but taxpayers in the state and USC have committed $100 million in funding for it

Right, and supporting the bus system is not the responsibility of the state or USC. Don't you think you should do a little research before you start spouting off unfounded information?

What do you recommend as a permanent funding source seeing how the taxpayers said no to the 1-cent sales tax increase?

Extend the $10 vehicle registration fee ($15 for commercial vehicles) for now. Then go back to the drawing board with the 1-cent sales tax increase and tweak some things to make it more palatable to the voters (reduce the time frame, cut out some projects, reduce another tax in lieu of the penny tax, etc.) in 2012.

[Akhenaton06]

Originally Posted by g-man430

Ummm...the state DOES support the bus system though. Check SCDOT's website for funding that goes to local transit agencies including Columbia's.

I'm talking about as a permanent funding source silly. That much should have been obvious since I mentioned that before.

Why shouldn't USC support the bus system also? The city sure as heck can't. It is a major university located in the heart of downtown Columbia afterall. Clemson University students pay for the bus system that runs through their city with a $10 transit charge on tuition per student.

USC has its own on-campus shuttle service so it doesn't need to support the bus system since most students don't use it. Things are different in Clemson since the university and the town are practically synonymous.

Oh and i'm willing to bet the CITY did spend a ton of money on Innovista that could have gone to the bus system instead. How much though is unclear. If you want to keep getting mad at me over lack of research due to another failure in Columbia then go right ahead because I don't really care.

The city spent $35 million to go towards Innovista facilities at a time when there were no funding issues for the bus system. And this is not a "failure," it's simply a setback as the bus system has not failed. I suppose you don't know that Charleston had the exact same problem but the voters there supported the penny tax after they saw the negative effects of such drastic cuts in the bus system. But I guess you didn't have time to start a thread about that in the Charleston forum now did you? And to even bring up Innovista, which is totally unrelated to the bus system, is absurd. It's quite premature to talk about a long-term venture like Innovista failing after only about four years. It took longer than that to get RTP off the ground.

And obviously you do care, otherwise you wouldn't have even created this thread.

[linicx]

Closed. If you want to discuss the bus service then start a new thread that reflects the topic of discussion.