The North Central Regional Transit District will be expanding its public transportation services come next October, thanks to voters who supported the District’s initiative to add a one-eighth of one percent gross receipts tax increase in Rio Arriba and three other counties.
The initiative passed in all four of the District’s counties, Rio Arriba, Taos , Santa Fe and Los Alamos, according to unofficial results posted on the Secretary of State’s web site Wednesday (11/5) morning. In Rio Arriba the initiative passed by a 53 percent to 47 percent margin before absentee ballots were tabulated.
“The people have spoken and it says a lot for the type of support public transportation is receiving,” Española City Councilor and District Board Chairman Alfred Herrera said. “(The initiative) will provide a tremendous opportunity for those most in need,” he said.
Voters have shown that they believe in building the infrastructure of public transportation in Northern New Mexico, District Executive Director Josette Lucero said.
The increase will add .125 to current gross receipts tax rates. In Rio Arriba County, that would take the rate from 7.75 to 7.875, and in the portion of Española that is in Santa Fe County the rate would go from 8.1875 to 8.3125.
The increase is expected to generate close to $8 million in annual revenue, District Public Works Director Jack Valencia said. Of that Santa Fe County’s portion would generate about $4.5 million (however, the District would only see a portion of that), Rio Arriba and Taos Counties would bring in about $750,000 each and Los Alamos around $2 million.
The increase will not be collected until the start of the next fiscal year in July, Lucero said, and the money would not be available in October. Expanded service would start then, she said.
Santa Fe County will have its portion of the tax distributed differently than the other three counties. An estimated $2.3 million, half of what the proposed tax would generate, would go toward funding the rail runner project, and out of the second portion 86 percent would go to Santa Fe county, leaving the remaining 14 percent, estimated at $320,800, to go to the District, according to the District’s updated service plan.
“The Board will start going through an implementation plan and deciding which routes are needed first,” Lucero said.
Herrera said the plan is to have all the proposed changes laid out in the district’s most recent service plan implemented within a year from when the first projects are phased in.
Proposed changes for Rio Arriba include increasing the frequency on Española’s fixed routes from every 60 minutes to every 30 minutes, extending hours on fixed routes from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. rather than its current schedule which runs from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., and adding a Saturday service on those routes between 8 a.m and 8 p.m., according to the District’s most recent service plan.
Other District plans include two-day-a-week service between Española and Tierra Amarilla; fixed route service between Española and Alcalde; fixed route service between Española and Velarde; direct service between Dixon and Española; and new services to Chamita.
Christopher True, of the Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo, said he voted in favor of the tax. There aren’t a lot of job opportunities available in the area and people have to travel to places such as Santa Fe for work, he said.
Whatever funding the District gets will help a lot, he said.
But Chris Quintana of Alcalde said he voted against the tax increase.
“Right now it’s hard to make ends meet,” he said.