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The Rapid’s board of directors announced last week that they are pursuing a 31% property tax millage increase on May 3rd to fund, among other things, the failed Rapid Silver Line bus system in Grand Rapids. ITP Watch, a project of Kent County Families for Fiscal Responsibility, is opposing this tax increase for the same reasons we opposed it in 2009.

This $26 million tax increase will cost each household $190 more in property taxes for those residents of Grand Rapids, East Grand Rapids, Kentwood, Grandville, Walker, and Wyoming.

Here are some facts regarding The Rapid and this tax increase request:

• The proposed Rapid Silver Line would clog up Division Avenue, Michigan Street, and Monroe Avenue during rush hour by closing one traffic lane so that only the Rapid Silver Line could use it, leaving only one lane for cars
• The Rapid Silver Line would run slower than the bus that currently runs nearly the same route
• Voters already said NO to the Rapid Silver Line in 2009 – but the politicians at The Rapid didn’t get the message!
• The average Rapid bus operates about 90% empty
• The Rapid loses $4.31 for each and every rider that uses the system
• The Rapid just spent over $30 million on a new garage so that their buses could be stored indoors
• The Rapid spent $250,000 on a piece of art for their headquarters
• The Rapid is giving their employees raises while most other government entities are cutting back
• The Director of The Rapid is one of the highest paid government employees in the county

The Rapid needs to do a better job of spending the money it already has before asking for more!

Stay tuned for further updates as we post more details about this upcoming vote.

If you would like to distribute a flyer to friends and neighbors, to explain to them what this tax increase is about, please feel free to use our flyer, available here.

It’s also important to contact your City Commissioners, State Representative, and State Senator and urge them to publicly oppose this massive tax increase.

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The ITP has finally released their Transit Master Plan on the web. You can view it by clicking here. Here are some highlights:

• The plan calls for not one, but two bus rapid transit (BRT) lines. This is the return from the dead of the failed Rapid Silver Line, which was already defeated at the polls by four of the six cities in The Rapid’s service area
• The plan calls for a light rail service downtown – adding railroad tracks and even more congestion downtown
• The plan calls for doubling The Rapid’s capital spending to half a billion dollars and operating costs to over $120 million a year
• This additional spending also calls for doubling taxes. They claim that they will “only” require a property increase to 2 mills, but since when do these sorts of government transit projects ever come in on budget? If you’re doubling spending, you’re doubling taxes.

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We now have available “Vote No” flyers available for everyone to download and print. There are four per page, making it easy to leave these reminders with friends and neighbors. The flyer simply states: “Vote NO on the $70 million bus tax increase on Tuesday, May 5th. For more information, visit www.itpwatch.org.”

>> Download the flyer here in PDF format <<

If you have ideas for more ways of getting the word out, please contact us at info@itpwatch.org

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We urge the voters of Grand Rapids, East Grand Rapids, Kentwood, Walker, Wyoming, and Grandville to vote NO on the Tuesday, May 5th ballot. The ITP is asking for another tax increase to fund the so-called “Silver Line” bus route. Why should you vote NO?

• The Silver Line will actually increase congestion on Division Avenue because two (of the four) lanes of traffic will be cut off to normal traffic during peak hours, so that the new BRT buses will have priority over all other traffic. That means that during rush hours, traffic will only be allowed one lane each way on Division Avenue.
• Rapid buses already travel this “new” route. The new Silver Line will only duplicate efforts and accomplish nothing new.
• This new bus route is being called a Bus Rapid Transit line (BRT). However, the length of the route is 9.87 miles and the travel time for that route is 36 minutes. That works out to a little over an average of 16 miles per hour. How do they call this rapid?
• Increasing taxes by $70 million during the worst recession since the Great Depression will only serve to kill more jobs in the Grand Rapids area.
• Very, very, very few of the residents of the ITP area will see any benefit whatsoever. Residents of Walker, Grandville, and East Grand Rapids will see no benefit at all.
• The dedicated lanes for these buses will eliminate crucial parking for the small businesses along Division.