There hasn't been much, if any, organized opposition to the Central Ohio Transit Authority's, or COTA, LinkUs sales tax levy.
Any number of voters will likely vote against or in favor of the levy, but a week out from the election, there is no vocal opposition to the levy or active campaign against it. The sales tax levy proposes an increase of the sales tax levy for COTA from 0.5% to 1% to fund increased COTA service, bus rapid transit corridors and more sidewalks and bike trails.
The campaign in favor of the levy features local elected officials lobbying for the levy, videos online promoting the levy and about $1.2 million in donations to the levy campaign committee, Moving Central Ohio Forward.
One group in Columbus did chime into the debate with some concerns over the levy, as well as an equal number of positives.
A pros and cons list by The League of Women Voters of Metropolitan Columbus provides some insight into some concerns voters may have about the levy. The organization issues a pros and cons list for most ballot issues facing Franklin County annually.
What are some concerns the League of Women Voters have with the LinkUs levy?
This year, the group listed three negatives to the plan, revealing some concerns voters at the ballot box may have.
The organization said the sales tax to fund these improvements is a "regressive tax," which is defined as a tax that puts the financial burden more heavily on low-income people, because they spend a higher percentage of their income on consumer goods.
The group also said that Franklin County's sales tax is already high. If passed, the levy would give Franklin County the highest sales tax rate in Ohio, at 8%, which would be equal to Cuyahoga County's sales tax.
Most of Ohio's 88 counties have a sales tax rate somewhere between 7% and 8%.
Under the current sales tax, a pair of jeans with a sticker price of $40 would add $3 with the 7.5% sales tax. Under an 8% sales tax, the price would increase by $0.20.
For more expensive items, like a new iPhone 16 which costs about $800 on Apple's website, the current 7.5% sales tax would add $60 to the total cost. An 8% sales tax would add $64.
For something as expensive as a new car, consumers could see a higher increase. A new Honda Accord at one of Columbus' local dealerships costs about $29,000 for the asking price. Under a 7.5% sales tax, there would be an additional $2,175 to the total cost. Under an 8% sales tax, the total cost would include an additional $2,320 in sales tax.
The league's last negative is that few Franklin County residents currently use COTA. The agency's ridership dropped dramatically after the COVID-19 pandemic and still hasn't recovered. The total amount of COTA rides currently stands at 11 million per year, which is down from 19 million in 2019.
The positives of the sales tax levy listed by the The League of Women Voters of Metropolitan Columbus include:
- Investing in public transportation infrastructure will have a long term positive impact on the community, allowing for accessible, reliable travel options and reducing dependence on individual vehicles.
- Differences between typical bus service and the rapid transit proposed by LinkUS include dedicated bus lanes, traffic signal prioritization and control, increased bus capacity and off-board fare collection to speed up boarding and more. Along with bus rapid transit, LinkUS would also provide funding for sidewalks, greenways and bike paths.
- COTA plans to leverage revenue from the sales tax increase to obtain federal grants for at least $800 million that require a local match to help fund the project.
COTA and OSU professor say ridership could increase with better transit.
COTA spokesman Jeff Pullin said in an email ridership will improve as mobility options increase. The levy would fund bus rapid transit routes and improvements to sidewalks and bike paths.
"An example is the later night service. If approved by voters, one of our first priorities is to increase our hours of service to midnight. We will market that increase to third-shift workers who have not been able to use COTA for the past few years," Pullin said.
Pullin also said ridership is rebounding since the steep drop because of the pandemic. He said the 11 million rides per year in 2023 was a nearly 12% increase over 2022 and a 25% increase over 2021.
He said ridership in September of this year was the highest since March 2020 at more than 1.1 million rides. Per day, COTA is averaging about 44,000 trips a day.
Pullin said LinkUs will enocurage what he called "mode shift."
"When transit is as reliable and as fast as a car, then more people consider using transit. But we need the resources to get there. Because with up to a million more people in our region by 2050, we cannot have a million more cars on the road," Pullin said.
Harvey Miller is a geography professor at Ohio State University with a researching specialty in transportation geography. He is also the director of the Center for Urban and Regional Analysis, or CURA, at OSU.
Miller said while sales taxes are regressive, in the U.S., it is the only mechanism available right now to fund public transit for most states including Ohio. He cast doubt on use of a sales tax as a negative against the plan.
"I understand this reluctance sometimes to use a regressive tax, such as sales tax, to fund public transit. However, I think it's more of a problem philosophically than practically," Miller said.
Miller said expanding COTA with LinkUs will help bring Columbus to parity with sales tax burden in comparison to Cincinnati and Cleveland.
"(Cleveland has) been funding that public transit with a 1% sales tax for a long time, so we're actually below our two other sibling cities here in Ohio in terms of supporting public transit," Miller said.
Cincinnati has a 7.8% sales tax with 0.8% of the generated funds going towards transit.
Miller said concerns about ridership are "a bit misguided." He said the debate is similar to the debate over whether the chicken or the egg came first. Miller said transportation researchers debate this, but he is on the side of building the infrastructure first.
"Part of that reason is that we don't have the public transit infrastructure and services that we need. People wouldn't drive if we didn't build roads and highways, and we have to think about public transit the same way. If the infrastructure and services don't exist, of course people aren't going to use it," Miller said.
Miller said LinkUs may provide a marginal shift from people driving cars to using public transportation instead. He said this could result in less congestion on the roadways.
"We cannot handle the growth that's coming here, unless we change our development trajectory and grow more dense corridors here served by high quality public transit," Miller said.
