COTA officials ready to pitch 0.5% sales tax hike to build bus rapid transit system
Mark Ferenchik
The Central Ohio Transit Authority plans to place a sales tax increase on an upcoming ballot, perhaps as soon as November, to raise $6 billion for a bus rapid transit system.
That would raise the sales tax for the system from 0.5% to 1%. Voters in the areas that COTA serves — Franklin, and parts of Delaware, Fairfield, Licking and Union counties — would decide.
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Officials say that permanent tax would also help their efforts to raise matching federal money and bond financing to pay for the system, which would cost a total of $8 billion by 2050.
"It will build a minimum five high-capacity corridors," Joanna Pinkerton, COTA's president and CEO, said during an interview Wednesday at the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission.
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The first corridors are being planned along West Broad Street through Downtown to East Main Street — The East-West Corridor — and the Northwest Corridor from Downtown to Olentangy River Road and eventually to the Dublin area that would link riders to Ohio State University and OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital, among other large employers.
The other corridors have yet to be determined, Pinkerton said. "That's a community process," she said.
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The plan is part of the LinkUS strategy that COTA, the city of Columbus and the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission launched in 2020.
The sales-tax hike would be dedicated to building out those bus rapid transit lines, where larger buses would have dedicated rights-of-way and passengers would board at stations, a pricey but less-expensive alternative to rail.
If voters approve the tax, the plan is to spend $1.4 billion by 2030, with construction to begin on the East-West Corridor route in 2024 or 2025, and the Northwest Corridor a year after that.
Construction for each would take two years, Pinkerton said.
Proponents say the new system would also spur development near stations along the corridor. A recent Ohio State study showed that multi-family property values increased along bus rapid transit lines in cities such as Cleveland, where the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority has the seven-mile HealthLine along Euclid Avenue from downtown Cleveland through University Circle to East Cleveland.
"Because we're talking about gaps in the system, it's a pretty big deal," said William Murdock, executive director of the regional planning commission.
The tax money also would be used to build infrastructure to support the system such as sidewalks, bikeways and greenways trails. Pinkerton said $61 million a year would be dedicated toward that, or $1.6 billion through 2050.
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The push comes at a time when central Ohio's population is expected to grow to 3 million by 2050 and Intel is pushing forward with plans for two computer chip plants in Licking County, a $20-billion project that 7,000 construction workers will build and where 3,000 Intel employees will work.
Pinkerton said there have been discussions with Licking County officials about regional transit.
Said Murdock: "The region will look noticeably different by the end of the decade."
"There is room to strengthen the quality of life," he said.
When would voters see tax issue on ballot?
Pinkerton said the COTA board will decide when to place the tax issue on the ballot, but it could be as early as November.
Columbus City Council President Shannon Hardin said the Greater Cleveland RTA has a 1% sales tax in Cuyahoga County funding it. He also said other cities, including Indianapolis and Austin, Texas, are ahead of Columbus in securing federal dollars for similar projects.
"We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity with the bipartisan infrastructure plan," he said.
Josh Lapp, who chairs Transit Columbus, an advocacy group, said his organization supports the tax hike. Lapp also is on the LinkUS leadership coalition steering committee.
"LinkUS is a comprehensive approach," he said, with bus rapid transit and protected bike lanes and sidewalks that connect to other initiatives such as the city's goal to build more affordable housing.
"Any kind of additional taxation is always something that needs (to be) explained to voters in order to get them to sign on to it," Lapp said. That includes environmental benefits and the reduction of traffic congestion.
"We really can’t be a world-class city without world-class transit," he said.
mferench@dispatch.com
@MarkFerenchik