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View Poll Results: Would you vote for the proposed 0.4% sales tax increase for the completion of FasTracks?
Yes 15 60.00%
No 9 36.00%
Not sure yet 1 4.00%
Who cares? 0 0%
Voters: 25. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 03-21-2012, 05:53 PM
 
Location: Boulder, CO
47 posts, read 94,348 times
Reputation: 40

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So after last night's move by the committee to put the ballot initiative before the board, it's starting to look like there will be a measure this November to increase the FasTracks tax by 0.4% to a total of 0.8% (or 8 cents for every $10) so they can finish the NW corridor in a timely manner (2024 vs 2035, I believe). The hybrid option was recommended last night, which would see a BRT system in place by 2020 that will ease congestion in the meantime while funding for the rail is achieved and the project as a whole is finished. The audience speakers and comments I've read on the Denver Post's site make me really nervous that people are just fed up with RTD and wouldn't even pass that measly tax increase, despite the fact that RTD couldn't have possibly predicted the Great Recession or that BNSF would be raising costs on them. I for one applaud RTD for being incredibly transparent through this whole process the last few months and for graciously taking the heat on all of this.

But without getting too political, I ask all of you Denverites on this forum: if it does go to the ballot, would you vote for it?
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Old 03-21-2012, 06:29 PM
 
Location: Littleton, CO
3,158 posts, read 6,107,536 times
Reputation: 5619
I have voted many times for RTD tax increases. They have responded with deeper and deeper cuts to the service to my area (South Jeffco). I believe that my area could be the most underserved area in the metro area. I will not vote for a higher tax for such bad service.
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Old 03-21-2012, 07:45 PM
 
Location: Colorado
6,701 posts, read 9,263,788 times
Reputation: 8678
Nope. This project has been mismanaged and doesn't deserve additional revenue, in my opinion. It will still be completed if the tax increase doesn't pass, just not as quickly.
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Old 03-21-2012, 08:15 PM
 
Location: Berkeley Neighborhood, Denver, CO USA
17,692 posts, read 29,696,842 times
Reputation: 33265
Default Nfw

They are in love with "choo-choo trains" while cutting basic bus service.
RTD is lucky that a repeal of their current tax is not on the ballot.

Last edited by davebarnes; 03-21-2012 at 09:01 PM..
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Old 03-21-2012, 10:10 PM
 
Location: Coos Bay, Oregon
7,138 posts, read 11,001,003 times
Reputation: 7808
Quote:
Originally Posted by patrickfatrick View Post
So after last night's move by the committee to put the ballot initiative before the board, it's starting to look like there will be a measure this November to increase the FasTracks tax by 0.4% to a total of 0.8% (or 8 cents for every $10) so they can finish the NW corridor in a timely manner (2024 vs 2035, I believe). The hybrid option was recommended last night, which would see a BRT system in place by 2020 that will ease congestion in the meantime while funding for the rail is achieved and the project as a whole is finished. The audience speakers and comments I've read on the Denver Post's site make me really nervous that people are just fed up with RTD and wouldn't even pass that measly tax increase, despite the fact that RTD couldn't have possibly predicted the Great Recession or that BNSF would be raising costs on them. I for one applaud RTD for being incredibly transparent through this whole process the last few months and for graciously taking the heat on all of this.
You gave them a sale tax increase, to build FastTracks. It's now been eight years, and so far they have not opened even one single mile of new track, and are now out of money. Yet, you want to give them another 0.4% sales tax increase? Which BTW would increase the current RTD tax from 1.0% to 1.4%. Which is a pretty unprecedented amount for a transit tax anywhere in the US.

What makes you so sure that if you give them another tax increase now, it will actually get built this time? Who's to say that in another eight years they wont be back for more money? Oopsie, looks like we made another miscalculation. Sorry voters, looks like we'll need yet another 0.4%.

If you want to get this system built, stop throwing money down a black hole. The RTD management has failed. They need to be held accountable. Heads need to roll. The entire RTD board must be replaced. RTD needs an entire new management team.

Start by hiring some people from Salt Lake City, who know how to get this stuff built. The UTA is Salt Lake City is building a rail network that will blow away all of RTD's rail plans. In 2006 voters there approved just a 0.25% tax increase to accelerate work on their rail system. For that they are getting 70 miles of new rail lines by 2015 added the their existing 64 mile rail network, at a total cost of just just $2.8 billion. Hell, RTD is currently almost that much over budget. And the UTA has been working in the exact economic climate as RTD. So stop with the copout about the recession and rising costs.

RTD is mismanaged, stop wasting your tax money on their incompetence.

http://www.georgiarail.org/wp-conten...ansit-Plan.pdf
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Old 03-21-2012, 10:15 PM
 
Location: Aurora, CO
8,602 posts, read 14,823,764 times
Reputation: 15370
Why are we still pouring water down a rathole with rail when we're on the cusp of having driverless cars? Taking the driver out of the picture will not only eliminate 99% of all car accidents, it'll also allow more cars to travel at higher rates of speed on our existing highways - without having to add any more capacity.
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Old 03-22-2012, 01:51 AM
 
Location: Denver, CO
1,627 posts, read 4,211,203 times
Reputation: 1783
Quote:
Originally Posted by davebarnes View Post
They are in love with "choo-choo trains" while cutting basic bus service.
RTD is lucky that a repeal of their current tax is not on the ballot.
Beats "putt-putt wagons" and their endless, congestion inducing highway projects.

Seriously, though, I agree that they should not be cutting so much bus service and that they need to find some real ways to win people over right now...like getting that service back.
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Old 03-22-2012, 02:01 AM
 
Location: Denver, CO
1,627 posts, read 4,211,203 times
Reputation: 1783
I would do it.

However, I can't argue with davidv who has a very sound reason for disapproving of this measure, because he's right.

On the other hand, I have to disagree with bluescreen73 that we are on the verge of driverless cars. I've seen experiments and prototypes, but such a system would take decades to institute simply out of complexity. How does the car know where to park? Where to let you off? Who gets to determine the protocol these vehicles use to communicate with what satellite system or interurban (or even interstate) networked positioning system? Surely this free market wonder (as the likelihood of such a project being within the realm of government budgets is pretty much nil) won't be a monopoly...and how will the poor be able to afford this remarkable, automated technology? Will market forces alone be enough to drive the prices down...or will they come down just enough? It's simply not viable.

That's why we need trains and buses.

If people are against the idea of trains but still honestly wish to see public transit then they need to start getting behind dedicated right-of-ways and separated grades for high traffic corridors. Medium to low traffic corridors can continue to make use of standard bus services on the road system we already have in place.

I believe that having a full transit network is going to benefit a great number of Denverites (and those in our greater urban area.) We've started it. Costs have gone up. Putting it off down the line for another 10 years or so is not going to make the costs any cheaper, as history has shown, so let's either suck it up and finish the thing, or forget it entirely and try to live with what we have. Personally, I'd rather finish it.
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Old 03-22-2012, 08:46 AM
 
977 posts, read 1,322,819 times
Reputation: 1211
Given that RTD has basically rolled over and is promising Boulder and the surrounding communities the most expensive transit system possible, asides from a floating mag-lev, I can't see how it passes given the hammering it will take from anti-transit groups. Instead of making a hard choice and saying that the NW commuter rail is a political-boondoggle that is financially unfeasible and dropping it for comprehensive BRT system, RTD has opted to double down and promise a system that will cost close to $3 billion dollars.

RTD needs to stop trying to please everyone all the time. From excessive bus service, that creates a backlash when it's pared back, to non-realistic rail systems, the pandering has to stop.
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Old 03-22-2012, 09:12 AM
 
704 posts, read 1,788,754 times
Reputation: 650
If you're willing to fork over any more cash to RTD's pie-in-the-sky light rail fraud, then you might at as well just hand over your whole wallet. If what has happened over the course of the last several years hasn't taught you, then nothing will.

Nevertheless, I--and, it seems, RTD--is pretty confident that only a minority of metro area residents would actually vote for a tax hike. A tax hike in Colorado is like a moth in a hornet's nest.
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