The Travis County Tax Payer Union fears locals will have to fund the whole $10-Billion for project Connect and they expect that’ll mean a major tax hike.
Cap Metro officials say they expect the Federal government to cover about 40%-45% of the project’s bill through fund matching programs, the rest will be covered by Cap Metro and local taxes. Tax Payer Union’s Rodger Falk said that’s far from a guarantee, “Capital Metro should be honest and say ‘we hope for [federal funding], if we don’t get it, you are the hook for all of it,'” he continued, “$10-billion dollars will raise property taxes on the average valued property in the City of Austin by almost $3000 a year.”
Cap Metro staffers said voters will have a say on Project Connect’s future and the 11-cent tax rate to fund it in November. The added, if the voters do approve the plan, it would be unprecedented if the federal government didn’t assist, as they have for the last few decades.
