(Credit: Capital Metro)
It was widely expected that the Leander City Council would vote Thursday night in favor of seeking out legal services to begin the process of ending the city’s partnership with Capital Metro. At issue: whether or not the city is getting enough bang for the buck. The council has been largely critical of the limited service it receives, compounded by the amount of sales tax it contributes each year to the transit agency. But, instead of backing out, the council opted to pull the item from the agenda in hopes of future negotiations.
Of the 8.25{2db634631ef8bd3f096060bc7daa4fc6677d16e616113d8c02bec6b420e3105c} state-collected sales tax, the City of Leander gets 2-cents, 1-cent of which is given to Capital Metro for bus and rail service. The 1-cent rate is the same across-the-board for all cities in the service area, large or small, but Leander Mayor Troy Hill says that puts an immense burden on cities the size of Leander, which he claims is the reason other cities, like Pflugerville and Cedar Park, backed out years ago.
“We cannot afford to pay one cent of our sales tax,” Hill said at Thursday night’s meeting. “It puts us at a competitive disadvantage when competing with cities around us for companies’ relocations, which restaurants, retail, and other types of economic activity follow.”
Hundreds of people turned out for the council meeting, and dozens gave public comment, with some saying Capital Metro service was one of the driving factors behind their decision to move to Leander.
Recognizing the benefit public transit provides numerous people in the Leander-area, Hill said Thursday he wants to restart negotiations with Capital Metro in hopes of bringing down Leander’s rate to something closer to a quarter-cent, which he feels would be more appropriate for a smaller city such as his. However, according to Capital Metro, state law prevents the agency from charging a certain rate for one or two cities, while charging a separate rate for others, which Hill acknowledged makes this a legislative issue.
“[Capital Metro] Director [Randy] Clarke has given us his promise that he will schedule meetings with state representatives and senators, and, together with us, lobby them to make this happen,” Hill said.
In the last fiscal year, Leander’s sales tax contribution to Capital Metro totaled $5.1-million. Currently, Capital Metro service in Leander is not available on the weekend.
