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11 <br /> The draft Orange County Transit Plan includes the allocation of 6,000 annual bus hours, or$582,000, to <br /> Chapel Hill Transit to support existing transit service. Chapel Hill Transit is concerned about the <br /> potentially escalating cost to run the current system and would like to have flexibility to use revenue <br /> from the Plan to respond to decreases in federal or state funding for transit or unanticipated increases <br /> in cost to run the current bus system. Understandably, Chapel Hill Transit wants to avoid a situation <br /> where increasing costs or decreasing revenues forces them to cut back on bus service while revenues <br /> from the Plan are only allowed to be spent on new services (which may not serve as many people or be <br /> as effective as services that are simultaneously being cut). However, others believe that the intention of <br /> the Congestion Relief Intermodal Transit legislation was to expand transit services, and,while it may be <br /> legally defensible, supporting existing services is not in the spirit of the legislation. In addition there is <br /> concern that the inflation of costs to run the current Chapel Hill Transit system could potentially affect <br /> the funding available to other transit operators and the funding available for the Durham-Orange light <br /> rail project if revenue is used to support existing services <br /> Orange County staff has suggested that if sales tax revenues exceed expectations by more than five <br /> percent that the Orange Board of County Commissioners would alone have the authority to decide what <br /> to do with the additional revenues. It would be solely their decision regardless if the agreement is a two <br /> party or three party agreement. <br /> TAC Action: Receive update and provide feedback as needed. <br /> Page 2 of 2 <br />