RTD board members tonight will consider how much of a FasTracks tax increase they will ask voters to approve and when to put the measure on the ballot.
Polling by the Coalition for Smart Transit, a key FasTracks backer, 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.
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 tonight’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. The board will take public comment on its FasTracks tax options. Jeffrey Leib, The Denver Post
