Photo via the Office of John Cooper
The Metro Council on Tuesday voted 33-5 in support of Mayor John Cooper’s transit plan, a scaled-back list of potential projects that does not include dedicated funding but is instead dependent on state and federal grants.
The virtual debate and ultimate approval were a far cry from the pomp and circumstance associated with the city’s most recent transit push, a multibillion-dollar proposal that would have used new taxes to pay for light-rail lines, a subway component and other major projects.
Cooper’s office pushed the council to support the resolution because, they said, it is necessary before the city can seek the federal and state funding needed to complete projects in the plan.
Councilmember Colby Sledge — one of the five votes in opposition — requested a two-meeting deferral, but that proposal failed.
The plan “needs to be in place as soon as possible,” Cooper senior adviser Faye DiMassimo said.
Many councilmembers were hesitant in supporting the proposal when it was introduced earlier this year, in part because it includes no dedicated funding for transit programs. But on Tuesday they largely supported it.
Metro Council Budget Chair Kyonzté Toombs called it “a long time coming.”
“We need to start somewhere,” she said.
Councilmembers and administration officials emphasized that the plan does not commit the city to any spending, but acknowledged that securing many of the grants imagined by the proposal would require a Metro match, to be considered on a case-by-case basis at a later date. That was enough to assuage one the Council’s more conservative members, Steve Glover, who said he “cannot support any part of this” because of the prospect of additional spending.
The Council added three amendments to the mayor’s proposal, including two related to specific neighborhoods and a third calling for the creation of a department of transportation.
