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25 <br /> <br />John Tallmadge said the $149.5 million does not include any of the debt repayment that 1 <br />occurs after 2032, but does include debt repayment that occurs before 2032. 2 <br />John Tallmadge said they are acting consistently with the adopted transit plan and cost 3 <br />sharing agreement. 4 <br />Commissioner McKee said in these documents the true cost of the project to Orange 5 <br />County needs to be acknowledged, and the long-term interest costs are not being 6 <br />acknowledged in the total costs. 7 <br />Commissioner McKee said he would like to know what the exact cost of the Erwin Road 8 <br />elevation, the Pettigrew Street elevation, and each one of these increased and decreased 9 <br />costs. 10 <br />John Tallmadge said the Erwin Road elevation is a $90 million add to the project; and 11 <br />there are other changes that are happening related to when construction costs are to occur and 12 <br />interest rates, etc., and all of these are changing as the get closer to the project. 13 <br /> 14 <br />Public Comment: 15 <br />Bonnie Hauser said her comments are intended to complement an email that we sent 16 <br />earlier this week: 17 <br /> 18 <br />First – thanks for the information on sales tax collections. It helped to alleviate our 19 <br />concerns. When the County lowered its growth projections, we wondered how you were going 20 <br />to meet GoTriangle’s aggressive projections. Now we know. 21 <br /> 22 <br />We continue to have concerns about the project, which we listed in our email. We hope that you 23 <br />will consider the full list. 24 <br /> 25 <br />Tonight I will focus on financial issues so that taxpayers can have a full understanding of how 26 <br />costs, functionality and risks have changed since voters approved the transit tax in 2012. 27 <br /> 28 <br />First. News reports have quoted GoTriangle saying that interest costs will increase to $850-29 <br />$900 million. We’ve also read about cost estimates for changes to Erwin Road and unresolved 30 <br />concerns of downtown Durham’s biggest business owners. All the while, GoTriangle and 31 <br />elected officials tell us that the capital cost remains at $2.4 billion, ignoring the debt burden 32 <br />that’s increasing for Orange and Durham County. For Orange, the project costs exceed $300 33 <br />million. How much more, including interest, will this project cost Orange County? 34 <br /> 35 <br />We’ve also like to know how much functionality is being cut or shifted to local governments? In 36 <br />the 2017 plan, we lost MLK BRT and about 20% of our bus hours. GoTriangle also identified 37 <br />about $75-100 million of unfunded needs that will be needed to keep basic bus services 38 <br />operational. What further cost shifting or “value-engineering” should we expect in the future? 39 <br /> 40 <br />Third. How much more will it cost Orange County to keep its transit services operating? We 41 <br />know that LRT is funded from the transit tax, but it appears that public transportation – that’s 42 <br />buses and other services – will be funded out of the Town and County general funds where 43 <br />transit will compete with schools and other essentials. There’s still a question about how 44 <br />possible changes to TIFIA loans could impact costs and the County’s ability to borrow money in 45 <br />the future. 46 <br /> 47 <br />With our questions and these things in mind, we ask that you to please invite Davenport back to 48 <br />update their review and assess Orange County’s risk. And while they are at it, maybe staff can 49 <br />give us an idea about how much our own transit services will cost. 50