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By Sam Wheeler for the Mail Tribune October 16. 2014 5:49PM RVTD says its future is riding on the election A Rogue Valley Transportation District bus pulls away from the transfer station Tuesday in downtown Medford. Mail Tribune / Julia Moore Rogue Valley Transportation District board members fear that if voters don’t approve raising property taxes to support the valley's local bus service, it will rapidly begin disappearing districtwide. Measure 15-128 would levy 13 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value within the transportation district for five years. It’s the first increase RVTD has asked for in more than 30 years. It would add to the flow of public funding provided by a permanent, 17.72-cent tax already in place for RVTD. If the measure passes Nov. 4, property owners in the district with a house valued at $150,000 would pay $19.50 more a year for a total of $46.08 in RVTD taxes. The current property tax costs $26.58 on a home valued at $150,000. The new levy would bring in an additional $1.69 million to district coffers each year for five years. The additional funding would not only help maintain RVTD’s current services but fund new routes to Rogue Community College’s Table Rock Road campus in White City and east Medford near McAndrews Road and Springbrook Road, said Connie Skillman, chairwoman of the RVTD board. “If this levy does not pass, then we’ll have to discontinue evening and Saturday service and make cuts in other parts of the district as well," she said. "It’s very important that the levy passes for those reasons, but it’s also a huge part of the infrastructure, and if this goes away or we have to reduce service it will have a very big impact across the board. Skillman said RVTD is seeking the levy in part because a three-year federal grant, which paid for expanded evening hours and weekend service, will end in 2015. Across the Rogue Valley, Skillman said, students, seniors and workers who don’t have access to a vehicle are served by RVTD's bus service. “(The levy) is overdue, but it’s also essential,” said Skillman, of Ashland. Medford Fabrication President Bill Thorndike said most of his employees drive themselves to work, but that’s not limiting his support for the levy as a business leader. “From an economic development standpoint, I am supporting it because I think it’s good for our economy,” Thorndike said. “We’re very fortunate now to have a transportation agency that I think is really dedicated to offering the most service for the least cost, and I appreciate as a business owner that we're being asked to contribute our fair share through property taxes just as homeowners are, just as riders pay the fare when they ride.” “One of the best ways to fund anything is everybody shares a little bit of the cost,” he said. RVTD board member Bill Mansfield of Medford said the Medford/Jackson County Chamber of Commerce and Ashland City Council are among entities that support the levy. “We think we're not only performing a service for all these people that need it, we think we’re performing a benefit for the economy,” Mansfield said. The district was established in 1975 and began offering bus service in 1977. In the 2004-2005 fiscal year, RVTD had 1,182,925 riders when fares were $1 each. In the 2013-2014 fiscal year, when fares were $2, there were 1,402,528 riders. According to RVTD statistics, 42 percent of passengers use the service five days a week, 31 percent of passengers indicate they wouldn't make the trip without the bus, and 29 percent of passengers use the bus to go to work or college. Reach freelance writer Sam Wheeler at [email protected] . http://www.mailtribune.com/article/20141016/NEWS/141019705 © 2015 Copyright © 1995-2011 Crain Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use Privacy Statement -->