Cities pull out of RTA; Norman picks up tab

Jun. 17—As The Regional Transportation Authority of Central Oklahoma loses member cities and its financial support, Norman has chosen to stick with it and pick up part of the tab.

The Norman City Council voted to approve an increase from $151,384 to $182,654 to fund its annual contribution to the authority [RTA] along with other amendments to the budget Tuesday afternoon.

The RTA is an independent governmental agency formed by state statute in 2019 after six cities signed agreements to pursue regional transportation alternatives. It currently pursues plans to construct passenger rail stops along existing rail lines and bus rapid transit to connect cities in the metro area from Edmond to Norman.

In the last six months, three cities have pulled their financial support and exited the agreement. Midwest City canceled its membership in December. Moore and Del City officials said Tuesday their cities intend to do so, according to news reports.

The annual contribution cost increase is due to member cities recently exiting their agreements with the RTA, said Norman Budget Manager Kimberly Coffman.

"As [City Manager] Darrel Pyle mentioned at the [budget] adoption meeting, if the RTA requests additional funds due to Moore's withdrawal, we might have to request an additional appropriation from Council at some point during the fiscal year," Coffman said in an email.

According to the agreement, six cities made up a district in the central Oklahoma region — Edmond, Midwest City, Del City, Oklahoma City, Moore and Norman.

The district's board will seek a special election from voters in member cities to adopt a sales tax to compete for a federal construction grant. The tax would also subsidize operation costs against passenger fare revenue, Central Oklahoma Transportation Authority Administrator Jason Ferbrache said Thursday.

Cities were recently asked to increase their annual contribution due to the cost of an ongoing study of the transit corridors.

"It wasn't a significant increase," Ferbrache said. "The contribution amounts are based more on the next year's anticipated expenses, primarily for the work that consultant Kimley Horn is doing to study the alignment, make all the recommendations on the station locations, basically get the project ready for a referendum and project acceptance by the FTA [Federal Transit Administration]."

Midwest City Mayor Matt Dukes told the newspaper in April that his city did not want to raise taxes or contribute more money to the annual cost.

"The RTA hasn't pursued any funding other than a sales tax hike to fund this monster ... Midwest City's is 9.1%. If they went for a 4% increase, that would put us at 13.1 percent. That would be unacceptable," Dukes said.

RTA spokesman Michael Scroggins said state law limits the authority to use sales tax revenue from cities, but it's capped at 2%.

"The RTA has and will continue to pursue other funding options, but most, namely property tax, have been difficult for our current legislature to consider," Scroggins said.

Dukes was also concerned that a special sales election in the district could easily win majority approval by larger cities like Oklahoma City and Norman, even if smaller cities like Midwest City and Del City voted against it.

He further speculated that it would impact sales tax revenue if residents hop on a rail or bus to shop in municipalities where sales tax rates are lower. The sales tax rate in Moore is 8.5%, Oklahoma City is 8.63%, Norman is 8.75%, but Del City's is 9%.

Dukes said it would be better to remove the city from the obligation before a sales tax increase came forward, rather than try to appeal it after the fact.

"I don't have to go back to my citizens and my constituents to say, 'Can I jump out of this boat,'" Dukes said. "But if I did it after the sales tax [increase], I'd have to go back and say, 'Hey this isn't working for us,' and we both know that any tax that goes forward, you're not going to appeal it."

Ferbrache appreciated the competition dilemma cities face as the only state in the nation that forces municipalities to rely on sales tax to pay for its operations.

"If everyone was at the same rate, it may not be as impactful," Ferbrache said. "If you're a city that's on the higher end already, and you give some of that capacity to the RTA, you know, then where's that leave you?"

Moore City Manager Brooks Mitchell said his city pulled back because it has other priorities.

"We don't have bus service in Moore," he said. "We felt like we need to take care of our residents first and so, the resources that could be put into the RTA we felt were better served by exploring bringing back local bus service first."

The RTA's bus route would not serve "parts of the city" that Moore "is looking at," he said.

Calls to Del City officials were not returned.

With or without stops in those cities, Ferbrache said transit will come through them with a stop at Tinker Air Force Base and multiple stops in Norman.

"The only thing it really changes is instead of trains or bus rapid transit stopping in Moore, Del City and Midwest City, there simply won't be any stops," he said. "Travel through those cities could actually improve travel time a bit."

Ferbrache said he praised the cities' careful analysis of their financial standing in the agreement against other obligations.

"I think the cities saw some benefit with the stops and maybe some commerce and development with those stops, but I guess at the end of the day they saw preserving that sales tax capacity with individual cities worked, at least for this time, for them," he said. "They can always join back if they want to."

Future of transit feasibility

Mayor Breea Clark told Council Tuesday that stops would cost more, but that Norman's contributions only pay for stops in the municipality — not in other cities.

Ward 7 Stephen Holman said he was comfortable staying in the agreement if Edmond and Oklahoma City remained.

Ferbrache said the cost of construction will now be split between three cities instead of six, but that expense will likely balance against the drop in costs for stops that will no longer be necessary.

"The proportionate share that the remaining cities pay would increase, but you're building less stations," he said.

Ferbrache said the future of transit is still "feasible."

"The foundation really upon which RTA was built is 100% intact," he said. "That was always the vision of Edmond to Norman, and connecting Tinker. I can tell you that our very, very recent discussions with Edmond, Norman, Oklahoma City — all three of those cities are 100% committed, 100% in to seeing this commuter rail constructed. We've had very productive conversation with Tinker, so much so they have involved us some of the transportation planning that they're doing for the overall base. I'm absolutely confident the project is still feasible."

A construction timeline had not yet been set, Ferbrache said.

"We can't start construction until we have a dedicated funding source," Ferbrache said. "The trajectory we are on now to have the RTA making a decision about [a special sales tax] election is probably somewhere in the 2024 to 2025 range."

If voters approve, Ferbrache said that will trigger the grant process with the FTA.

"To be competitive, the Feds [FTA] are going to want to make sure that the local is also investing and more importantly the local has an ongoing funding source for operations," he said. "The feds don't want to build a rail line that the locals can't afford to operate."

Mindy Wood covers City Hall news and notable court cases for The Transcript. Reach her at mwood@normantranscript.com or 405-416-4420.