Edited by Andrea Barnett, with contributions this week by Andrea Barnett and
Nelson England.
EMPTY BUSES VS. EMPTY CARS: Capital Metro’s Board of Directors voted Monday to
increase the transit authority’s sales tax share from 3/4cents to
1cents on the dollar. Last month when the Board announced its intention to vote
on the tax increase, it caught many Austinites by surprise, including local
politicians like Travis County Attorney Ken Oden and State Senator Gonzalo
Barrientos. Oden, who wanted Capital Metro’s unused 1/4cents taxing
power to create a crime prevention district, told the Board that it had
violated the Open Meetings Act by failing to post meeting notices at the County
Courthouse. Barrientos threatened to attach a last-minute rider to a Senate
bill that would require a state audit of Capital Metro. Mayor Bruce Todd and
Travis County Judge Bill Aleshire told Capital Metro to tie the tax increase to
voter approval of a bond election for light rail. Board members responded that
the tax increase would be needed even without construction of light rail
because of the increasing number of functions that the transit authority is
assuming under Austin’s recently adopted 25-year transportation plan. The plan
calls for transit to pay for half of the $7.5 billion to be spent on Austin’s
transportation system over the next quarter century, with Capital Metro funding
everything from sidewalks and bicycle improvements to vanpools, high occupancy
vehicle lanes, park and ride lots, and traffic light synchronization.
Meanwhile, bills working their way through Congress are virtually certain to
reduce Capital Metro’s federal funding by millions of dollars over the next few
years. Capital Metro General Manager Michael Bolton said that lack of funding
for transit has left Austin with a 1960s bus system while the population booms
and traffic congestion mounts.
On June 5, opponents and supporters of the tax increase clashed for three
hours at a public hearing before the Capital Metro Board. Opponents accused the
Board of trying to pass the tax increase too soon, without proper public input.
Supporters responded that no one complained about lack of public input when the
Board voted to decrease Capitol Metro’s tax share from 1cents to the current
3/4cents at the peak of the recession in 1989, resulting in revenue
loss of $129 million for the transit authority.
Former mayoral candidate James Cooley told the Board that neither the public
nor public officials supported the tax increase. “We don’t have a 1960s bus
system,” said Cooley, “we have a Sixties mentality of throwing money at
problems.” Longtime Capitol Metro foe Gerald Daugherty said that transit only
survives through huge government subsidies, and buses remain empty while 93% of
Austinites continue to use their cars. Even the Los Angeles earthquake only
produced a 2% switch to transit, said Daugherty, and that only lasted until
freeways were rebuilt. Transit supporters responded that tax money subsidizes
motorists more than transit. One citizen, Eric Blodgett, told the board, “I’m
sick of breathing fumes from hundreds of empty automobiles,” referring to
statistics that show that over 80% of Austin’s moving cars are occupied by only
one person at any given time.
In countering the “empty bus” argument, transit supporters said that bus
ridership increased from 15,000 daily in 1985 to 65,000 in 1995, while
opponents replied that bus ridership has actually declined since it peaked in
1990. Some transit supporters acknowledge that the city is likely to see both
more empty buses and more empty cars as long as transit consists of buses using
a roadway system designed primarily for automobiles. Only a fixed-guideway
system like light rail will give transit the time and convenience edge
necessary for it to compete with the automobile, they say. –
N.E.
TAKE BACK AUSTIN FROM WHOM?: With the city council giving away tax abatements,
spending $13 million on a baseball stadium, $100,000 installment on San
Francisco consultants to analyze downtown redevelopment plans, considering a
$30 million retrofit of Palmer Auditorium, and preparing to help build and
manage a new recreation center in East Austin, it’s not surprising that a new
political group has formed in town to try to head off the council’s spending
spree. The new fiscal conservative coalition, called Take Back Austin, is led
by Wayne Ahart with Brokers National Life Assurance Co., and (semi) retired
attorney Johnnie B. Rogers, who both say they’re fed up with financial
irresponsibility in city government. Since both Ahart and Rogers live outside
the city limits, neither can legally vote in the city election they are
attempting to influence. Ahart resides in Lakeway, while Rogers resides in
Onion Creek; both areas are within Austin’s five-mile extraterritorial
jurisdiction (ETJ). Despite this, Rogers explains that the group is meant to be
a “citywide and countywide organization, because it’s getting to be more and
more where the ETJ people are impacted on these things just as much as anybody
else.” Ahart and Rogers have targeted three councilmembers – Max Nofziger,
Brigid Shea, and Jackie Goodman – for replacement, since all three are up for
reelection next spring.
In an interview last week with Chronicle senior writer Daryl Slusher on
his regular KOOP radio talk show (6pm, Thursdays), Rogers and Ahart contended
that they would like to see seven like-minded, fiscally responsible
councilmembers after this next city election. Both Ahart and Rogers said that
Shea, Goodman, Nofziger, and fellow Councilmember Gus Garcia vote as a block to
approve most spending issues and that as a result, Garcia will be the group’s
next target when he comes up for reelection in 1997. Asked by Slusher who they
like on the council, Ahart replied, “We like what’s left: Eric Mitchell, Ronney
Reynolds, and the mayor.” Ahart was quick to add that the three councilmembers
they do support have cast votes they don’t like either, “but they’re quality
people and they’re right most of the time.”
Out of the five spending projects Ahart and Rogers say they oppose – the
baseball stadium, Palmer Auditorium, the Save Our Springs ordinance legal
defense, the consultants, and the East Austin recreation center – Reynolds and
Todd supported all five, and Mitchell supported four. On the other hand, Shea
and Nofziger objected to the fee for the downtown consultants, Shea called for
a public vote on the baseball funding, and she also questioned the financial
data supporting the East Austin recreation center.
During the radio interview, Rogers and Ahart rescinded their objections to the
cost for the East Austin center, saying that they support more infrastructure
for the Eastside. Ahart went as far to try to blame the current council for the
Austin’s racial problems – “Before this group of council people ever came to
town, it didn’t used to be East Austin versus West Austin; it just used to be
Austin.” The two insisted on this theory even after Slusher pointed out
official city plans from the 1920s that called for the relocation of
African-Americans and Hispanics to East Austin.
Ahart and Rogers both deny that they’re attacking just the three
councilmembers up for reelection, and contend that all the councilmembers are
at fault for going overboard with new, expensive projects. On the radio
program, Ahart said he agrees with Slusher “100%” that there is a connection
between fiscal responsibility and environmental responsibility. But regarding
the Circle C “Bradleyville bill,” Ahart called the Austin-bashing bills from
this legislative session “council-correcting,” and said that he “doesn’t
quarrel with [them].” As for explaining their own reasons for wanting to
participate in “council-correcting,” or council-replacing, both Ahart and
Rogers have difficulty pinpointing exactly what they dislike about those they
have targeted. Asked for specific examples of what he didn’t like about
Goodman’s voting record, Rogers answered that he “didn’t know Jackie Goodman. I
have nothing against her. We think her motives are sincere, but we don’t like
her philosphy and we have the general feeling that she hasn’t rendered good
government.”
The group has struck a nerve with the fiscal responsibility message – Ahart
says 400 people have signed up so far to join their cause since their full-page
advertisement came out in the daily newspaper on June 4. Both he and Rogers
hope to gather together 30,000-40,000 citizens who will help elect the council
candidates the group supports. But while the fiscal message is popular and
meritous, the group may face difficulty trying to tell the difference between
councilmembers they like and don’t like. In the end, the voting records for all
seven look awfully similar. – L.C.B.
WHERE TO BE GREEN: Newcomers to the Austin area could get a quick primer in
local geography, hydrology, and environmental politics before they buy or build
in sensitive watershed areas, thanks to a new map from the Hill Country
Foundation.
Unveiled last Tuesday, the 24 x 36-inch map shows the Austin area from
Georgetown to Kyle, and from the Hamilton pool to Manor. On the front, the map
includes all roads, three sections of the Edwards Aquifer recharge and
contributing zones, school districts, major employers, endangered species
habitat, the Balcones Canyonlands Conservation Plan preserve land, 100-year
flood plains and tracts of native prairie and woodlands east of I-35.
On the back, the map includes photos of endangered species, maps of the Barton
Springs watershed, the area covered by Austin’s Save Our Springs (SOS)
ordinance, and the entire Edwards Aquifer. There’s a short passage on the
natural history of the area, and an explanation of how the aquifer works.
There’s also a section on “living lightly” on the aquifer, for people who
decide to live there anyway.
“One of the reasons we’re doing this is, in the first place, nobody has ever
put all this information together in one place before,” says Will Andrews of
the Foundation. Andrews says the group will sell the map for $3.50, and plans
to try to distribute it through the Chamber of Commerce, local real estate
agents, and members of Another Business for Barton Springs. Currently, the map
is available only through the Hill Country Foundation. For more information,
call 478-5743. –
This article appears in June 16 • 1995 and June 16 • 1995 (Cover).