DELTA TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Delta Township voters will decide on a Public Transportation Millage on November 4th that would determine the future of services like CATA's Route 3, which extends to Market Place Boulevard.
- The 0.75 mills property tax would raise up to $1.5 million in revenue per year for 10 years.
- The millage would cost the average homeowner an additional $80 per year.
- Township officials say the funds are needed as state funding grants for transportation are running dry.
WATCH: Delta Township public transportation millage vote approaches
For residents like Lexia Phones and Laura Smith, CATA bus service is essential to their daily lives. I met them at the CATA bus stop near the Delta Township Walmart.
"This is my means of getting around," Phones said.
"It's very important to me to get to Horrocks, because Horrocks has what I need that I can't get anywhere else," Smith said.
Both rely on public transportation for different reasons.
"Anything in Lansing, I go to work, go to my doctors appointments, all that," Phones said.
But this route is at risk of ending as state funding grants run dry. Township officials propose a Public Transportation millage as the solution.
The 0.75 mills of property tax would raise up to $1.5 million in revenue per year for 10 years.
Mary Clark, clerk of Delta Township and chair of the Etran board, supports the millage and says the money will be vital to maintaining and expanding services.
"Permanently keep that expansion of Route 3 and more," Clark said.
If the millage passes, Clark says a new Transportation committee will be formed to determine how exactly to spend the money.
"This is a whole new project for Delta and we have to sit down and negotiate prices and costs and see what services we can buy with that amount of money," Clark said.
She hopes to see the CATA Rydz partnership expanded, along with CATA Route 12 to LCC West.
Not all residents support the proposal. Michelle Hart, a Delta Township resident, plans to vote no.
"Without telling us a clear vision of how they plan to spend 1.5 million dollars, we really need more of an explanation, more transparency on how those dollars will be spent, before I would support a millage," Hart said.
Hart says the recent public safety assessment is already putting pressure on residents, and she believes this tax question lacks clarity, despite her general support for public transportation measures.
Voters will decide on the ballot question November 4th.
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