Addison Township officials made it clear that if a property tax proposal to fund a regional mass transit system makes it to the ballot, they believe communities, like theirs, that would be excluded from direct service should have the ability to choose whether or not to participate and pay.

On Monday evening, the township board voted 7-0 to approve a resolution opposing a “county-wide millage” for the Regional Transit Authority of Southeast Michigan (RTA).

It argues the system the RTA seeks to develop “benefits select communities in Oakland County” and “does not connect or directly provide equitable, beneficial services” to Addison residents, creating an “inequality.”

“The township requests and supports an opt-out or opt-in provision for the RTA county-wide ballot proposal,” the resolution states.

Certified copies will be forwarded to both county and state officials.

“It’s just another way (for) us (to tell) RTA that we aren’t happy . . . it’s not going to benefit us, and I think it’s . . . a money grab,” explained township Supervisor Bruce Pearson. “They want all the northern townships to pay for (a) system which, as far as I’m concerned, will only benefit those people (in densely-populated areas). It’s not going to benefit us whatsoever.”

RTA officials are considering placing a 20-year, 1.5-mill property tax request on the ballot in Oakland, Macomb, Wayne and Washtenaw counties to fund the development and operation of a regional transit system under a new plan called Connect Southeast Michigan. If the RTA board votes to send the proposal to the electorate and it gets approved, the millage is expected to generate a total of $5.4 billion over two decades.

Township Clerk Pauline Bennett pointed out that the RTA wants a millage that’s higher than Addison’s general operating tax of 1.0455 mills.

Currently, there is no process for townships, villages and cities to opt out of the RTA, but legislation (House Bill 5870) was introduced April 24 in the state House to allow them to withdraw if their governing body approves a resolution to do so.

Allowing communities to opt out of transit authorities is not without precedent. Fifty-three municipalities – 36 of which are located in Oakland County – have opted out of the SMART bus service.

Pearson pointed out the regional transit system proposed by the RTA is biased in favor of Detroit and against rural areas like Addison because the closest bus route is 17 miles away from the township’s northern border.

“Everybody thinks that everybody wants to go to Detroit,” he said. “My idea is we need the people from Detroit to come out here and (make) our businesses flourish. It should be a two-way street.”

But that can’t happen under the RTA plan because “anybody coming from Detroit would (have to) be dropped off right around M-59 and then they (would) have to find their own way to get out here to Addison Township.”

Addison officials based part of their opposition on the fact that the last time the RTA had a tax request on the ballot in 2016, it was 1.2 mills – lower than what’s currently being proposed – and it failed.

The 2016 proposal failed by 18,000 votes out of the 1.8 million ballots cast in the four counties. But in Addison, it wasn’t even close – voters resoundingly rejected it 2,372 to 983.

“The township opposes the RTA ballot proposal being placed repetitively on a county-wide ballot, at a higher rate of 1.5 mills, while continuing to exclude this township (in terms of providing it) with equitable direct services,” the resolution states.

The resolution noted that “individual vehicles” continue to be the primary “mode of transportation” for “the majority” of Addison residents, who pay the associated “individual costs” for gasoline, insurance, maintenance and repairs.

“(People) don’t move out to the country expecting there to be a bus line to get them to different places,” Pearson said.

It also noted that Addison residents already pay a public transportation millage for the service provided by the North Oakland Transportation Authority (NOTA).

NOTA provides low-cost, publicly-subsidized transportation for senior citizens, individuals with physical and/or developmental disabilities, and low-income folks living in Oxford, Addison and Orion townships along with the villages of Oxford, Leonard and Lake Orion.

“NOTA provides direct service routes . . . at a much lower cost to the participating communities,” the resolution states.

According to Pearson, some township supervisors from the west side of Oakland County toured the NOTA facility and “they were very impressed with how we’re operating.”

“Our NOTA system is extremely successful” and they want to “duplicate” it,” he said.

Last year, NOTA provided a total of 38,877 rides and travelled 484,149 miles within its 223-square-mile service area.

NOTA is primarily funded by local taxpayers via a mix of contributions from the municipalities and a dedicated property tax approved by Oxford and Orion voters in 2014 followed by Addison voters in 2015.

The approved tax rate was originally 0.25 mill, but the Headlee Amendment reduced it slightly in each township. A proposal to renew the NOTA millage will appear on the Aug. 7 ballot in all three townships.

Township Trustee Linda Gierak failed to see the logic of adding the RTA millage to what Addison residents are already paying.

“I just think it’s ridiculous that we would pay for cars, pay for NOTA and pay for (mass) transit for people that won’t have to pay for cars (and) won’t have to pay for NOTA,” she said. “I mean it doesn’t make any sense.”

Because Addison is one of 60 communities within the RTA not served by fixed transit routes – which involve vehicles, such as buses, operating along a prescribed route on a fixed schedule – it’s supposed to receive funding under Connect Southeast Michigan.

This funding would be provided under what’s being called the Hometown Service program. The purpose of this, according to the plan, is to give these 60 communities “the opportunity to design and implement local services that best meet the specific mobility needs of their residents.”

Hometown Service would provide $30 million annually to the 60 communities to do things such as support existing transportation services, develop new programs, extend routes, provide commuter shuttles and establish local circulator services where a vehicle, such as a bus or rubber-tire trolley, makes frequent trips around a small geographic area with numerous stops along a designated route.

Of that $30 million, approximately $17 million annually would go to communities in Oakland County, including Addison, Oxford and Orion townships. The townships could use that money to stabilize, enhance and increase services currently provided by NOTA.

Although having that money come back to local governments may sound good, Pearson pointed out, “We’re not going to get (back) what we put into it.”

Based on 2018 taxable values, the RTA’s proposed 1.5-mill tax would take an estimated $524,885 annually from Addison property owners or a total of $10.5 million over 20 years, according to the resolution.