RTD board members on Tuesday will consider how much of a FasTracks tax increase they will ask voters to approve, and when to put the measure on the ballot.
The Coalition for Smart Transit, a key FasTracks backer, has said its polling shows proponents of the $6.7 billion transit expansion could not win a tax election this year, nor raise enough money to wage a credible campaign for such a measure.
Earlier this year, Regional Transportation District staffers promoted a plan that would have asked voters this November to approve a sales-tax increase of 0.2 percentage points — half the current 0.4 percent FasTracks tax — to complete up to 90 percent of the program by 2022 and all of it by 2027.
At Tuesday’s meeting, the RTD staff will recommend an alternative — that directors approve a 2011 FasTracks financial plan that assumes voters next year will approve a tax increase of 0.4 percentage points, a doubling of the existing tax.
Such a successful vote in November 2012 would allow all of FasTracks to be completed by 2020, RTD staff said in a report.
RTD must submit the 2011 financial plan to the Denver Regional Council of Governments for review, and the staff report added that board members tonight also could leave open the option of putting the 0.4 percent tax-increase measure on this November’s ballot.
The board will take public comment on its FasTracks tax options.
