WAVE Transit Ready to Reach Further into Your Wallet

 StarNews:

Wave Transit officials soon will present elected officials across the county with plans to extend bus routes to the beaches, an idea that could increase a countywide motor vehicle tax and require investment from the towns.

[...]The idea is to create a year-round bus route from Monkey Junction to Pleasure Island with the intent of serving mostly residents who want to reach jobs, stores and other destinations either on or off the island.

[...]Eby [head of WAVE] said one new year-round bus route could cost about $220,000 per year, and he said Wave Transit likely would seek contributions from the beach towns.

[...]But New Hanover County’s beach towns’ contributions might be minimal if a proposal to increase the motor vehicle tax is approved, he said.

 

He said increasing the tax by $7 would generate more than $1.1 million a year and would pay for transportation projects in addition to the extension of bus routes. (Oh, so apparently it's about more than just adding a route.  It's about WAVE not even being close to self-sufficient)

Jonathan Barfield, chairman of both the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners and the area’s transportation advisory committee, said he wanted voters to decide through a referendum whether the county should increase motor vehicle taxes for that purpose.

Barfield said he isn’t yet advocating for or against raising the motor vehicle tax, but he said he thought extending the bus routes would provide options for residents as well as mitigate traffic and parking concerns for tourists.

“I think it’s necessary that we do it,” he said. “The question is, how do we pay for it?”

[...]He also said a bus service would help others without transportation reach jobs off the island. “If you live in Kure Beach or Carolina Beach and don’t have an automobile, you’re limited to a place of work,” Lewis said. (So, then why don't we just pay for personal door-to-door service for everyone who needs it??? *ironic*)

Everything in government comes with a trade-off.  Every dollar the government gets is a dollar that comes from the people.  Therefore, development within the government could easily hurt development in the private sector.  In fact, study after study shows that growth of the government does hurt growth of the overall GDP.

It might be nice to some people to have bus routes going all over the place, but the city and county cannot afford it.

For more on WAVE, see here.