In a bipartisan vote, the Oakland County Board of Commissioners approved placing a public transportation millage question on the November 8 ballot at its meeting last night. If approved by voters, funding from an Oakland County public transportation millage will support current public transportation services in Oakland County, create and extend new routes to connect local communities and increase transportation service for seniors, veterans and people with disabilities. The millage would be levied at a maximum rate of .95 mills (95 cents per $1,000 in taxable property value) for ten years beginning in 2022 and ending in 2031.
“Senior transit matters,” Board Chairman David T. Woodward (D-Royal Oak), who authored the resolution, said. “Getting patients to health care and workers to jobs matter. It matters that people with disabilities and those without access to other transportation can get to the places they need and want to go. This proposal is an Oakland County solution to improve transit in the county for everyone.”
The Oakland County Public Transportation Millage would do the following:
• Maintain funding for all current public transportation services across Oakland County
• Improve access to transit for all Oakland County communities with new routes and expand paratransit and microtransit service
• Provide essential capital investments to improve transit service and leverage maximum state and federal matching dollars available
“We’re serious about transportation, and our communities are serious about transportation,” Highland Township Supervisor Rick Hamill (R-Highland), who is also a member of the Western Oakland Transit Authority (WOTA) Board, said. “Through this millage, everybody would be contributing to the greater good. I’m an advocate for transportation, so why not put this on the ballot and let the people speak their peace?”
The proposed transportation millage would replace the current local public transportation millage for the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation (SMART) and provides funding to replace all other locally public transit millages. The proposed millage dedicates funding no less than $2 million for the North Oakland Transportation Authority (NOTA), $1 million for the Older Person’s Commission (OPC) Transportation and $2 million for WOTA. The millage would also provide additional funding to expand public transportation services across the county. It is estimated that $66 million will be collected in the first year.
For additioanl information about the Board of Commissioners, visit www.oakgov.com/boc.
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