(hi guys im just going to do a political rant about something on Austin's ballot so bear with me)
[rant]
Austin, Texas has had quite the traffic issues lately; I could go in-depth on this but I'll stay on topic here. Basically like most cities our city council notices the problem extremely late and then makes up some stupid idea that will solve "all" of our congestion.
Last time it was a 11-mile toll lane on one of our commuter highways (Loop 1/MoPac if anyone is looking at a map), now it's a urban rail on the worst route possible.
The route starts east of I-35, continues north with stops at the convention center and university of texas. It ends at a community college just north of town. The entire rail is 9 miles long.
Now you might say, this is a perfect route. For college students and downtown hipsters, yes it is. But they only make up about 10,000 people out of the estimated 1,000,000 people living and working in the Austin area.
But then we're forgetting a major factor in a proposition. Cost. The bill calls for $1 BILLION dollars. And how is our city that is deeply in debt going to pay for this? If you said taxpayers, you're correct. The bill will raise our property taxes by $3.25 per taxdollar. This is tripiling our already extremely high property taxes.
Yet with such a high price tag, the starfishs behind this bill are decieving the average voter with 2 statements I found in an advertisement for the bill.
1. No new taxes.
2. Will massively relieve congestion.
Now now, the first statement is true. It's just instead of adding in a new tax, they're increasing a current one.
It's like Badspot telling us he's going to add in a terrible new feature to the building part of the game. When we say we don't like it, he comes back and says "Don't worry guys we're not add it to the building part"
...it then gets added to painting.
The average voter is going to go, "oh sweet no new taxes i support this bill!" then find his property taxes getting raised through the roof.
Secondly, urban rail, buses, etc. are not ever going to massively help congestion. Instead it just adds another option of transit.
Not to mention: taking 10,000 cars off the road is a HUGE improvement and will TOTALLY help a city that is RAPIDLY getting new citizens each day. The rail will come into service in early 2022. Imagine how many more people are going to move in!
Thank you for reading my massive rant on problems most likely irrelevant to you. if you felt i missed any details or made errors please let me know. I tried to be fair in discussing the bill itself.
[/rant]
