news-record.com

The last time voters in Guilford and Forsyth counties teamed up on a tax referendum, they said no -- emphatically. The experience offers useful lessons in case there's a next time.

In 1998, voters in both counties overwhelmingly rejected a baseball stadium plan that would have raised money through a 1 percent tax on prepared meals and a 50-cent ticket tax. A group of businessmen led by Don Beaver of Hickory hoped to lure the Minnesota Twins of Major League Baseball to the Triad.

Promoters' "If we build it, they will come" pitch didn't convince voters to approve their Field of Dreams. Maybe that was wise, because the Twins never went anywhere. They're still playing in Minnesota.

Eleven years later, a bill pending in the state legislature would authorize Guilford and Forsyth counties to form a joint tax district for funding mass-transit projects. If commissioners in both counties called a referendum, voters would be asked to approve a half-cent sales tax.

The Piedmont Authority for Regional Transportation supports the legislation, which has been passed by the House and awaits action in the Senate. But PART Executive Director Brent McKinney wouldn't be in any hurry to tap new revenue sources. It might be many years before big projects are needed, if ever, he said Thursday.

PART's long-term vision includes "express bus, commuter rail and high-speed rail connecting the region internally and externally." In the mid-term, "bus rapid transit," or creating a special highway track for commuter buses, is a possibility.

But for now, running buses with other traffic on existing roads is doing fine, McKinney said. Triad congestion isn't tangled enough to require anything different.

The more immediate concern is likely to be fuel. As costs rise, motorists will consider alternatives, which will become relatively more affordable. But McKinney cautions against planning too far into the future. Don't start building an expensive light-rail system if the advent of cheaper, cleaner alternative fuels makes individual vehicles the travel mode of choice again.

The sales-tax option, if granted by the legislature, could be proposed first for improving existing bus systems in Greensboro, High Point and Winston-Salem, McKinney predicted. That's a step toward achieving PART's goal of "seamless mobility" throughout the region.

The sales-tax mechanism, whenever it's utilized, may be an important tool if big mass-transit projects are ever warranted. But a strategy of building it first, then hoping you'll need it, won't sell. The Triad's anti-baseball stadium voters proved that in 1998.