Transit group launches, pushes CATS tax

The Baton Rouge Transit Coalition formally launched today by outlining its plan to secure funding for and to expand the city’s beleaguered bus system. The Capital Area Transit System currently faces a $2.1 million shortfall in 2012 that threatens to shut down transit services entirely. The BRTC will work to act upon the recommendations of the independent Blue Ribbon Commission, which examined the problem and issued its report to Mayor Kip Holden in June. The BRTC will advocate for a dedicated tax-generated revenue stream “to keep us from this endless cycle of insanity that we have found ourselves in year after year after year,” says Raymond Jetson, chair of the BRTC Steering Committee. “The folks from CATS have made it quite clear that, without additional funding, there is a point in time in which they would cease to have sufficient operating revenue to continue a public transit system. … That’s not a viable option for our community.” The group will consist of a main steering committee, composed of 18 prominent community figures, and six committees devoted to legislation, public engagement, monitoring CATS metrics, board criteria, ballot proposal wording and campaigning. BRTC has already launched a website, which you can check out here and a pledge-card drive. Jetson says the BRTC is a work in progress. “We have a pretty good idea of where we’d like to go, but we recognize that we are not in control of a lot of key factors that will ultimately determine what we are able to do,” he says.
—Ian McGibboney