Minutes 03-15-2012 Work Session - Laserfiche WebLink

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included $330 million in total dollars for light rail. This includes 75% funding from state and federal sources. He went through the different options for cost sharing: 1) Assumes Orange County payment of LRT to Leigh Village in Durham County. 2) Assumes Orange County pays for 4 stations in Orange County and Durham County pays for remaining 13 in Durham County ($324 million). 3) Durham County counter proposal. ($316.2 million total and $79.05 million from Orange County) 4) Orange County proposal based on '/2-cent revenue % as collected by Orange County and Durham County. This amount would pay for some capital costs ($70m total, $17.5 local share) in Durham County. 5) Assumes capital costs of a 2.89 mile length in Orange County of a 17.4 mile total length of an averaged per mile cost along entire route (i.e. not actual cost of segments and stations in Orange County). Craig Benedict said that due to the delay in not implementing the '/2-cent sales tax this year, some of the bus hours anticipated in the spring of 2011 have been reduced. Patrick McDonough from Triangle Transit answered clarifying questions from Commissioner Gordon. Commissioner Gordon asked if the light rail project costs increased then would the bus hours decrease. She asked if the commitment would have to stay with the light rail. Chair Pelissier said that in the agreement, there need to be some trigger points for when revenue might go down. There need to be provisions or safety nets to keep the current bus hours in place. Commissioner McKee agreed with Commissioner Gordon. He said that the first decision needs to be whether any projections are reasonable. He said that the amount of money taken up by this light rail is not reasonable and equitable. He said that he has already heard that bus hours are being reduced because of increasing costs of the light rail. The first question for him is whether light rail is the way to go. He is not convinced that this is the right decision. He asked if there was a Plan B if in the year 2020 the project is 50% complete and the funding comes up short. Patrick McDonough said that there could be delayed implementation or shortened lines if this happened. Wib Gulley said that capital projects take time and cost a lot of money. He said that it is difficult to project exactly what it will cost so far into the future. He made reference to the reduction of bus hours and said that it is driven by the reduction of revenue related to sales taxes. Commissioner Yuhasz said that he was not confident that the County will end up with a light rail system. He is also not satisfied with where this is going. He said that the question is what is a fair and equitable distribution between Orange County and Durham County. Commissioner Foushee said that this discussion is preparing the Board to get to the real question. Until some decisions are made, the County Commissioners cannot get to the real question, which is whether or not to put a referendum on the ballot. Commissioner Hemminger said that she has a very hard time committing a Board 15 years from now to moving monies out the General Fund because of a decision that this Board made. She asked if the revenue stream would work. Patrick McDonough said that the revenue stream is based on things that the County staff thinks will happen. He then went through Attachment 4, which showed what would happen if there was no federal or state funds for capital projects. He said that if there is no federal money for capital projects, the MLK bus lanes can still be built and the Hillsborough Train Station could still be built.