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Operating costs for the DARTA Agreement

This agreement did not contain any funding from existing "State CTF" fuel taxes. The removal of cars from freeways to obtain both transit grants and permanent operating subsidies qualifies for CTF funds under ACT-51,247.660b-Subpart(a)*(6) as a statewide need. An operating tax other then "State CTF" to pay for a Chief Executive Officer is deficient from a previous state of competence and aberrant from existing forms of compensation.

The state fuel tax should not be spent on expanding freeways but instead to protect and improve our existing transportation systems. This especially means mass transit. In the 1950's, there was enough money from fuel taxes for expanding roads and freeways but statistics submitted to the FTA from this website shows this is no longer true.



In theory, large state and county matching funds applied for federal transit grants can build light rail to connect metro airport to downtown Detroit.

In practice, this can only benefit the region when "operating costs" are generated from increased rider-ship and efficiencies from "existing" transportation systems.


The illustration above shows DARTA was another complete layer of government







The directors of DARTA rejected industry support for public bus service

Research by "Save the Fuel Tax" *(1) documented an additional $13.2 Million per year could have been generated to pay for"operating" budgets to include a legal agreement to coordinate without county tax increases. This would have resulted in more jobs, saved the SMART bus contract (2006 TO 2010) in Livonia and defended federal transit grants. The agreement was instead Lansing's regressive mandate to provide "operating" and additional "capital" funds from sources other then the state tax on fuels for the primary purpose of balancing the state transportation budget. This means to withdraw formally from association and help, to break apart and abandon. The agreement had no provisions to ensure keeping present funds or to make better use of them. Detroit's labor contracts and work practices were broken making the 2006 Livonia SMART bus reductions open to discrimination for a recall, if publicly challenged under current laws in Michigan.

Next August 2010, the defeat of the SMART property tax renewal legally means $32 Million from the Michigan Department of Transportation must be restored under ACT-51*(6) which is the equivalent of pre-1995 funding in accordance with the first passage of the SMART property tax under ADA requirements for federal transit grants.



The DARTA, if made legal would have caused further losses in both state and federal funds.
Thus is in the right place as rejected in it's present form.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) collects and disseminates data on the state of mass transportation via the National Transit Database (NTD) program. Over 600 of the nation's transportation providers submit data to the NTD annually. Both the public and private sectors use this data to assess the current state of mass transit and plan for the future.*(2)

House Bill 5467 to create DARTA does not identify sources to pay for "operating costs".*(3)

The PDF documents and references at the bottom of this page show that new transit tax mechanisms and increases which include regional sales do not result in cost-effective mass transit.*(4) *(5) In Michigan, the defunct DARTA agreement has resulted in a deliberate loss of revenue sharing for essential government services and employment opportunities. These same kinds of changes can also include the loss of funding for education without written accords. The simultaneous DARTA and Livonia SMART bus service reductions were a concealed legal way of eliminating federal transit grants for minorities and the low-income to replace with local funds as evidenced by the SMART 285 bus route being changed to 280 to withdraw without a public vote.


NOTE: The publication below are in PDF (Printable Document Format)-for viewing & printing purposes. To view & print these publications, you will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader plug-in installed in your browser. If you don't have the plug-in, it can be downloaded FREE from Adobe's web site at: http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html

*(3) Click Here - House Bill 5467 conference Report 11/02
And ~ State of Michigan, Employment Relations Commission, Labor Relations Division.
~ a case concerning the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

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*(1) Source - "Save the Fuel Tax" Data Base - Operating and Capital Expenses, Suburban / SMART
*(2) Federal Transit Database - Transit Operating Funds Applied: Details by Transit Agency
~ www.ntdprogram.com/NTD/ntdhome.nsf?OpenDatabase" - Federal Transit Administration (FTA) - Database

*(4) Brookings Institution ~ Improving Efficiency and Equity in Transportation Finance
*(5) Brookings Institution ~ Fueling Transportation Finance: A Primer on the Gas Tax
*(6) Please see the preceding section called The morality of protecting existing tax funds ~ Discrimination


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