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It has been the height of irony. Across the United States, members of Congress wanting to signal their openness to grass roots input have held thousands of town hall meetings. Meanwhile, here in Wisconsin, our town halls are denied any voice in the proposed regional transit authority. The 53,000 residents of 16 Dane County towns will pay RTA taxes, but they will have not even one vote on the commission which will impose those taxes.
How is such taxation without representation possible? It's just the latest proof that anything can emerge from a state budget process. After more than a year of deliberative study of regional transit issues by the Legislative Council, the issue wound up being resolved in secret caucuses in the Capitol. The interests of rural town residents lost out to the special interests with high-powered lobbyists. But all of Dane County lost in this vote. As president of the Dane County Towns Association, I support improving transportation in Dane County. And that includes mass transit. But we oppose the undemocratic way this RTA was set up - and the real reason why. The democracy problem is obvious. These 53,000 town residents will have zero votes on the RTA commission while residents of the cities of Sun Prairie, Middleton and Fitchburg, with 66,190 residents, get three votes. I defy anyone to tell me that is fair. Towns were disenfranchised for a reason. The RTA was not set up to evaluate and respond to transportation needs. It was set up so it would implement the pre-ordained goal of commuter rail. For decades, a handful of rail advocates have been pushing for commuter rail in Dane County. When early studies showed the economics didn't justify it, the focus changed from economics. When studies showed the best transit solution was expanded bus service, the advocates hijacked the local study process to change the preferred local altrnative to rail. Then the study group clammed up, refusing to hold meaningful public input sessions. That's understandable, because scrutiny would show rail is not economic or environmentally sound. And after time had passed in silence, rail had become "the long-standing community preference." So of course, state legislation to implement that "long standing" goal became necessary so we could get federal funds. Now we have a new law that will allow creation of an RTA. Its taxes will be imposed on the entire central portion of Dane County. The residents of Madison and the surrounding villages will have appointees to the RTA commission. The towns' residents are apparently good enough to pay for the system, but not smart enough to vote on it. We could enhance the transportation system of Dane County starting tomorrow by using a small portion of the $42 million in annual tax revenue the RTA will be allowed to tax. That amount of money would operate a lot of buses and reduce fares. When the system builds the ridership, we could move to a backbone rail system if the economics and the passenger counts warrant it. But the rail advocates don't want to go with buses because their agenda really isn't about transportation. It's about land use. They want to build a rail system so they have a reason to force all new development to within a half-mile of the rail corridor. If they proposed such a radical land-use agenda, it would never be approved. So they are getting there indirectly. We need an independent evaluation before we spend $500 million or more to build a rail system that may serve 10,000 people at a cost per mile that is greater than operating a Mercedes. We also need to ferret out the truth about the rail proposal - that it's really about forcing ultra high-density land use on Dane County, not transportation. Madison isn't Portland, Ore., despite the wishes of some. Let's move forward to develop a transit system which works for everyone - with everyone allowed to vote.
Jerry Derr is president of the Dane County Towns Association.
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