Thursday, February 14, 2008

Dedicated Funding - Transit - YES; Affordable Housing - NO

Seth Rosen's Feb. 12, 2008 article "City, county agree to form transit authority" suggest that city councilors are ready to establish a dedicated source of revenue for transit management, planning, and operation through some new taxes or fees. I am curious if the former mayors of Charlottesville who opposed establishing a dedicated source of revenue for affordable housing at the February 4, 2008 public hearing on that issue at city council will show up in opposition to establishing dedicated revenue for transit. Former mayors Caravati and Vandever and current councilors Brown, Huja and Taliaferro opposed the concept of establishing dedicated revenue and promoted keeping funding decisions in the annual budget process. If this is truly their concern, I hope we will be hearing similar concerns expressed by these former mayors and current councilors at the February 18, 2008 council meeting. Both transit expansion and affordable housing are priority issues for Charlottesville. Shouldn't the options for generating funding be consistent?

If you are not familiar with the affordable housing discussion of February 4, check out Seth Rosen's February 5, 2008 article "More than 125 city residents back housing relief."

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