State Representative Randy Gardner last week said a provision he sponsored in the state budget bill that gives member communities of the Toledo Area Regional Transit Authority the means to end TARTA property taxes was a matter of voters rights.

“This is not about me, or TARTA, or Perrysburg,” Gardner said. “This is about voters’ rights and public accountability.”

Gardner’s amendment to the budget bill allows city councils and township board of trustees the authority to place a repeal of the TARTA property tax on the ballot in 2012 and 2013. If voters agree to reject the tax, it would be abolished and membership in the transit authority ended. Gardner said there is nothing in the amendment that prevents communities from contracting with TARTA for specialized services such as the TARPS paratransit service.

Under current law, there is no practical way for a community to leave TARTA, he said, adding his bill also creates a trial period communities could join the transit authority if they vote to do so.

For several years, officials in the City of Perrysburg have been frustrated with the service TARTA offers in the Wood County municipality. A vast majority of the city’s residents who responded to a survey five years ago indicated neither they nor a family member had used a TARTA service in the past two years.

At the time, the authority’s property tax was collecting about $1 million annually from the city.

In Lucas County, the cities of Toledo, Sylvania, and Maumee; the villages of Ottawa Hills and Waterville, and Sylvania Township and Spencer Township are TARTA members. In Wood County, only Perrysburg and Rossford are members.

Officials in suburban communities have complained of poor service and contend what service they do receive is often little utilized.

Members of Rossford City Council are studying public transit service alternatives, Ed Ciecka, Rossford administrator said.

An indication of a lack of support for TARTA among the Wood County suburbs was evident four years ago when its 1.5-mill, 10-year replacement levy was on the ballot. It passed in Sylvania, Toledo, and Ottawa Hills, helping it reach 53 percent of the total and secure the levy’s win, but it was rejected in every other community including Perrysburg and Rossford where it failed in each of 21 precincts.

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