Want better bus service, Boise? City leaders say curb on taxes threatens that
When Tom Mooney took the lectern facing the Boise City Council, he wanted to talk about the city’s bus system.
A Boise resident, Mooney was one of the last to testify during a nearly two-hour hearingon the future of the city’s public transportation. Near the end of his remarks, he turned to council member Holli Woodings and asked her about her 2017 campaign promises focused on the bus system.
“You talked about the need to have buses running,” he said. “Later hours for them, I remember you saying that when you ran.”
Two years later, he said, Boiseans are still talking about how to make that happen.
“It’s not for lack of trying,” Woodings responded. “I know, because we’re one of very few cities in the nation that has no dedicated funding for transportation. And so we’re one of the very few who have to do this out of our general fund.”
Woodings said the city is facing “a lot of challenges.” Funding public transit has been a concern for Boise officials for a long time.
City leaders have said for years that they hope to get a local option tax passed to fund public transit, but the Idaho Legislature has not granted them the power to ask voters for one.
The council asked residents to weigh in on their transit priorities. Options included:
- Running all routes on Saturdays (estimated to cost $2 million).
- Starting Sunday routes (estimated at $600,000).
- Adding later hours (running the bus system through 9:30 p.m. on weekdays would cost an estimated $1.4 million).
- More frequent routes (an estimated $3.2 million could have buses stopping every 30 minutes at each stop).
Several people who testified at a county hearing Tuesday said they favored Sunday bus options, but all improvement proposals had at least one supporter. Any of the changes would be paid for from the city’s general fund.
Proposed legislation could make it even harder for Boise to expand its bus system. Rep. Mike Moyle, a Republican from Star representing District 14 and the House majority leader, has proposed a bill to curb increases in city property taxes.
Right now, taxing entities are allowed to increase taxes 3% each year without voter approval. They can also take tax revenue from new construction and annexed property. Under Moyle’s proposal, localities would be able to take only the 3% and would have their taxes frozen at current levels through the 2021 fiscal year.
Boise dedicates 5% of its property tax revenue to transit and plans future upgrades. If taxes were frozen and a cap enacted, Council President Elaine Clegg said after the meeting, the city likely wouldn’t be able to implement any changes to the bus system at all.
“I think it’s really important that both our citizens and lawmakers understand that there are real needs that we need to fund with those property taxes, that these aren’t things that are frivolous or superfluous,” Clegg told the Statesman. “These are real things that make a difference in people’s lives.”
Clegg has raised the prospect of putting more than 5% of the city’s budget toward transit in order to improve the bus system.
She also expressed concern that the proposed legislation would not solve tax problems but create greater economic hardship as people wouldn’t be able to rely on transit to get to their jobs.
In an interview with the Statesman, Mayor Lauren McLean echoed that concern and said the legislation would hurt Treasure Valley taxpayers more than help.
“It’s an Idaho value that we pay our own way, that growth pay for itself,” McLean said. “There are a lot of proposals over there,” she said, gesturing in the direction of the Capitol, “that would actually put the burden of taxes on existing residents as our valley continues to grow. That concerns me, because we’ve heard so clearly that residents need relief, and these proposals won’t do that.”
Boiseans can weigh in online about the city’s public transportation future until Feb. 25.
This story was originally published February 11, 2020 at 11:03 PM.
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