Board Votes for Extension of Part’s Tax

The Piedmont Authority for Regional Transportation won approval Thursday to continue taxing rental cars to pay for buses, commuter trains and other transportation efforts.

The Guilford County Board of Commissioners voted six to five to allow PART to collect the 5 percent tax.

PART cannot levy the tax without the commissioners’ consent. The board had approved a one-year trial last year, and on Thursday gave its blessing for the tax to continue indefinitely. Without the tax, PART likely would have gone out of business.

“They have met the expectations,” said Commissioner Bob Landreth. “It’s time to turn them loose.”

The approval means the tax will also continue in Forsyth County, which has agreed to go along with the levy as long as Guilford County does.

“It’s a way of helping people who otherwise maybe would not be able to afford transportation,” said Commissioner Carolyn Coleman.

Coleman, Landreth and Commissioners Mike Barber, Jeff Thigpen, Skip Alston and Bruce Davis, all Democrats, voted for the tax.

Barber said PART needs a source of local income to attract even greater state and federal dollars for its services.

Republican Commissioners Linda Shaw, Trudy Wade, Billy Yow, Steve Arnold and Mary Rakestraw voted against the tax.

Wade said she may have supported it if the commissioners had agreed to extend the tax for only two years, and then reconsider it again. The board voted down her suggestion.

“Accountability, checks and balances are in my idea good government,” Wade said.

Arnold, who votes against all tax proposals, said increasing taxes is not the way to promote economic development. He said PART’s plans do not make sense.

“Light-rail is a silly and ridiculous idea in this area,” he said.

Opposing commissioners accused PART of inflating its bus ridership numbers to gain the board’s support. They said PART’s estimate of 315 riders a day is misleading, because that figure is the number of boardings, not the number of people using the service. People are counted twice if they transfer to a different bus.

“You’re giving us a false number,” Yow said.

He and Rakestraw criticized the commissioners for not permitting tax opponents in the audience to speak out. Opponents included car rental owners and the local chapter of Citizens for a Sound Economy, a national organization promoting lower taxes.

The organization contends the tax – $1.50 on a $30 rental – is hitting local residents, not visitors as PART claims.

Opposing commissioners said the tax is unfair to an industry that already is suffering because of a slow economy. Rental companies in Guilford and Forsyth counties brought in about $3 million less between July and December 2002 than during the same six months in 2001, prior to the tax, according to information PART provided to the commissioners. That’s a difference of about 14 percent.

The approval does not automatically mean the tax will continue. It still must be approved by the PART board, which will hold a public hearing on the issue at 8:30 a.m. March 12 at the Piedmont Triad Partnership in Greensboro.

There is almost no chance PART will stop the tax because it likely would be putting itself out of business.