Posted on 09/27/2007 7:14:13 AM PDT by CedarDave
Voters in Bernalillo, Santa Fe, Sandoval and Valencia counties could be asked to approve a $25 million gross receipts tax increase next year to pay for operating the Rail Runner commuter train.
Transportation Secretary Rhonda Faught said Wednesday that each county would have to first agree to join a regional transit district, then voters would be asked to approve an additional eighth-of-a-cent tax on gross receipts.
The increase would amount to 12.5 cents on every $100 of purchases.
Faught stressed that the plan was in early stages; her department hasn't even approached the counties yet. But it's clear the state will need an injection of cash to pay for operating the train.
The Rail Runner now runs between Belen and Bernalillo at a cost of about $9.5 million a year. More than $8 million of that is paid by the federal government, but that funding disappears next year.
Operating costs are projected to rise to $20 million a year when service is extended to Santa Fe.
A regional transit tax would help pay for the train at a time when New Mexico is struggling to close what some say is a half-billion-dollar gap in funding for its highway system. Critics of the Rail Runner project fear operating costs will eat into money better used on road construction and maintenance.
Faught said the regional transit district "is the one (scenario) that makes the most sense of all the options."
(Excerpt) Read more at abqjournal.com ...
Also yesterday, ground breaking for the 18-mile SF extension took place in the vicinity of the La Bajada rest stop. The state vows to have the RR operating by the end of December 2008. This is New Mexico, we shall see.
Included in the extension is a grade that will have to cut through and climb the very steep La Bajada cliffs and (this is new) includes two tunnels to access and leave the I-25 medium. During the construction, the speed limit on the very un-crowded I-25 will be lowered from 75 mph to 55 mph.
until because "concerns about traffic, noise, safety and station location haven't been satisfactorily answered by the state."
The current north-south service, started last year, has less than 2,000 passengers per day ridership and the train has already killed three people in two collisions at unguarded crossings. Now the state will come up with the money to either close or put gates and lights at the very rural crossings south of Los Lunas. Boondoggle cubed!
NM PING!
From Channel 7 (video at link):
SANTA FE, N.M. — Rail Runner officials broke ground on the track running from Albuquerque to Santa Fe Wednesday. Officials said they have enough money to complete the tracks to the capital city, but not enough to operate it once it gets there. One possibility they are looking at is an eighth of a cent gross receipts tax that would only apply to those counties serviced by the rail runner. Those counties are Valencia, Bernalillo, Sandoval and Santa Fe.
“We feel very confident that once that service is up and running that people will want to keep it running and will vote for a very minor minor increase in gross receipts tax,” Department of Transportation Secretary Rhonda Faught said.
The proposed tax could go before voters as soon as November 2008.
http://www.koat.com/news/14214035/detail.html
If you want on or off the NM Ping list, please FReepmail me.
Don’t even get me started.
Oh Joy! Can I opt out of the tax if a sign an affidavit saying that I will never ride the Rail Runner?
Well, at least I don’t live in (and rarely travel to, anymore) those counties.
Although I wouldn’t be surprised if they soon force everyone in NM to pay extra taxes for it.
What has happened to New Mexico anyway? Used to be such a nice place. Sure, the politicians have always been corrupt (for 300 years) but at least before, they weren’t all so foolish about it..
Pretty soon the license plates will need to be changed so the motto reads: “Land of Disenchantment.”
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