5 things to know about the Raleigh Transportation Bond
RALEIGH (WTVD) -- It's a lot of money, by almost any measure - $207 million dollars. But, advocates will tell you, transportation matters and roads cost money.
In this case, the bond would add 1.29 cents to the tax rate. That increase would increase the property taxes on a home worth $100,000 by 12.90 percent.
The bond money would go to an assortment of projects positioned throughout the city; most of the projects include some combination of upgrades including, "curb and gutter, sidewalks, bicycle facilities, streetlights, and landscaping."
A handful proposes to widen existing roads (Tryon Road), put in roundabouts (Wake Forest Avenue), and make one-lane roads into two-lane roads (Blount/Person).
Other projects are less well defined such as $15 million for "PNCDOT Project Partnerships" and "Streetscape Projects" and critics have been quick to jump on the lack of specificity in how the money would be used as a key problem with the bond.
Ed Jones with the Raleigh Taxpayers Association said he's been against the bond from the beginning.
"I'm not sure that these particular bonds are appropriate," he said.
Among the problems, Jones sees with the bond is the fact that more than half of the money would go to improving roads owned by the state.
Of the 16 specific projects outlined by the city, 12 are on state roads; the cost of those improvements totals $116 million, more than half of the total bond amount.
We took concerns expressed by Jones and others to Raleigh Transportation Planning Manager Eric Lamb. Here's what he had to say:
Q: What about the concern that more than half of the money in this bond would go to work on state roads?
Q: Some Raleigh taxpayers say they're essentially being "double-taxed." Are they?
Q: Critics complain the city is going to "cut a $15 million check" to the state. Is there anything to that?
Q: The West Street Extension projects seems like a big deal and there's $10 million allocated to it. What's going on there?
Q: In a 2013 transportation bond, the city got 75 million dollars and used it, in part, on projects that didn't get finished. Part of the money being raised in this bond would go toward completing the work. How do you explain having to ask taxpayers for more money?
