Apr 08 2008
Fayetteville Raises Car Tax, Durham Seeks Similar Increase
The requested vehicle fee increase would boost the annual levy for registering a car or truck in Durham from $10 to $15. The move would raise an estimated $750,000 for the bus system, which officials would like to expand.
Council interest in raising the fee surfaced last month when administrators reminded members that it’s time to renew a 2004 bargain with the General Assembly that allowed officials to increase the fee to $10.
The fee could roll back to $5 unless legislators extend the deal. The idea of raising it to $15 is new and could prompt fresh bargaining with the members of Durham’s General Assembly delegation.
Why are the people who are providing their own transportation footing the bill for people that aren’t? Shouldn’t the riders of DATA support the system they use? In the very least they could have done what Fayetteville did and thrown in an increase in bus fare instead of putting it all on the backs of automobile owners.
Car owners and bus riders will have to dig deeper into their pockets to pay for improving Fayetteville’s transit system.
At a Monday work session, a majority of the City Council members agreed to raise bus fares for the general ridership to $1.50 and to double the $5-per-vehicle tax now levied on city taxpayers.
The current bus fare is $1.
The council also agreed Monday to raise the $1.50 fare for picking up disabled people at their homes by appointment to $2.50 per trip.
The fare and tax increases combined will generate about $675,000 more each year for the much-maligned Fayetteville Area System of Transit.
