The proposed 4-Party agreement allows the AATA until December 31, 2014 to declare themselves duly constituted. This is too long a timeline if they are meanwhile going to continue operating at a deficit. This fiscal year (2012), they announced that they would “catapult” themselves into the county plan – reported by the Chronicle [link] – with a budget that leaves only 3 months in reserve to cover operating expenses. If they continue at this rate of spending, they will have 4 fiscal years (2012, 2013, 2014, 2015) to expend resources before a countywide vote of any kind has been declared a yes or no.

The Governor’s initial proposal for the vehicle registration tax [link] was that it would require a referendum in any given county, and that money for transit would be limited to the 10% stipulated in the State Constitution. However, in a recent email/web statement, he wrote,”…I’ve gotten a lot of feedback from drivers and it seems like people are grudgingly willing to pay higher registration fees, but on a few conditions: “First, people are only willing to pay more if there is a guarantee the funds will actually go to the roads. I’ve heard this message loud and clear, and I agree.” [link]

This strongly implies that Snyder is not willing to put his weight behind dedicating any vehicle fees to transit, which brings us back to the millage option as the primary source of public funding for additional transit services. Unless, as is rumored, there’s a plan coming out of the western side of the state to push for local sales taxes. I, for one, would welcome that, as millages are a form of taxation based on an abstraction (appraised property value) rather than actual money available to individuals, families, or businesses.

I am very concerned about the possibility that the City Council may sign off on an agreement that could transfer Ann Arbor’s millage and the AATA assets to a new authority without a public vote. As I have attempted to show in a recent blog post [link], over 60% of the funding for the new authority would come from Ann Arbor even if a countywide millage is enacted, assuming that no more townships opt out.

Meanwhile, recent news reports indicate that the City of Ypsilanti council is ambivalent about transferring their millage to the new authority, and have even indicated that the language enabling that millage might not permit such a transfer. In addition, with a countywide authority, the revenue from Purchase of Service Agreements (POSA)that the authority currently receives for service outside the city would vanish.

If a method is found to bypass a millage, there might be no public referendum either within the city or outside of it. I hope that the Council does not approve an agreement that would permanently transfer all of our local assets without a requirement that this arrangement is affirmed by a vote of the people.

I am surprised by the non-response of the community. This stated intention to foil democracy seems more like China than America.

On Dec. 13, 2011 the court extended the deadline for the AATA to file pleadings responsive to the motion for a preliminary injunction and a temporary restraining order, which are now due by Jan. 17, 2012.

A status conference by telephone is supposed to take place among the parties and the court on Jan. 4, 2012.

Jim, this probably isn’t enough detail for you to assess whether you’d want to use the service, but back in October, the kind of service being negotiated by the AATA was to provide 12 daily trips each way, with a very limited number of stops, in order to achieve a trip time of around 40-45 minutes.

Re: [2] “Why would AATA have to pay any kind of fee to enter the airport?”

I think that question reflects the same position the AATA takes: Why should a private contractor operating under the auspices of the AATA need to pay the usual entry fee that private operators pay? Detroit Metro’s entry fee policy, as I understand from AATA’s descriptions, is that public transportation does not pay a fee, while private companies do. When Detroit Metro sees a Michigan Flyer vehicle, they “see” a private operator, whether that bus is operating under contract with AATA or not. It looks like some kind of breakthrough had been achieved – Detroit Metro had apparently agreed there’d be no fee for Michigan Flyer buses operating under contract with AATA – but based on Ford’s report at the meeting, it sounds like that breakthrough may have been short-lived.

Why would AATA have to pay any kind of fee to enter the airport?

Thank you for the AATA coverage and your previous article on November 29th that contained the link to the Motion For Preliminary Injunction filed by the American Civil Liberties Union in United States District Court in Detroit.

That lawsuit has received nationwide press coverage and may create landmark First Amendment legal precedent on the ability to post political advertisements on buses regarding issues of public interest.

Do you have an update on the status of the federal court proceedings? Did the AATA file a response to the complaint pleading or the motion for preliminary injunction? Has there been a hearing date set on the preliminary injunction motion?

This lawsuit has generated tremendous amounts of public controversy locally.