LANSING – A bill, several years in the making, creating a regional transportation authority in Southeast Michigan was approved on a mostly party-line vote Tuesday by a House committee.

All but one Republican on the House Intergovernmental and Regional Affairs Committee voted against HB 5731 and Rep. Coleman Young II (D-Detroit) abstained from voting, making him the only Democrat not to vote in favor of the measure.

The bill is part of a package that includes HB 5732 and HB 5733 and would create one transit authority for Macomb, Oakland and Wayne counties, as well as the city of Detroit to allow the region to work together for transit planning. Proponents say the bill would move toward fixing the lack of public transit connectivity in the region, seen as one of the area’s biggest challenges to growth.

Young said he agrees that building on transportation in the area could be “a boon” to the region’s economy, but added that he wants to see a consensus among the leaders of the included areas before he votes on a bill, which seems to “create winners and losers.”

If the bill were to become law now, Detroit would certainly be among the losers, said Ken Cole, a lobbyist for the city.

He has several issues related to defining who has authority under the bill but said his biggest issues are timing and funding.

Timing is crucial because the city is in the middle of applying for federal funds to complete the Woodward light rail project. Because the federal government requires an entity to have been in formation for a year before it qualifies for the funds, and under the bill the new transit authority would become the applicant, the city would likely lose out on funding, he said.

He added that the lack of prescribed funding to run the new authority would likely also be an issue for the federal government, not to mention make it impossible to operate the new transit authority.

The bill does give the authority the right to tax to raise revenue but in the current economy and with the Legislature not even showing the will to raise taxes, he said he doubts efforts at increased taxation would be fruitful.

The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Bert Johnson (D-Highland Park), acknowledged that the bill is not yet finished, saying there are issues of governance yet to be hashed out.

However, he said, he thinks the committee has done everything it can on the measure and it now should be moved to the full House. In the meantime, said Johnson, he will continue to facilitate talks between all of the officials involved to reach a compromise on the legislation.

“Everyone has been heard and will continue to be heard but right now the committee should pass the bill in support of the over-arching goal,” he said.

TRANSIT ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT: The panel also discussed but didn’t vote on a group of bills that are part of a larger, bi-cameral package of bills referred to as “transit oriented development” measures.

HB 5977 , HB 5978 , HB 5979 , HB 5988 , HB 5989 and HB 5998 are bills intended to facilitate, promote and finance investment in public transportation development by amending several tax structure laws.

Essentially, the bills would allow local governments to create special tax authorities in designated districts or zones for the purpose of building transportation, with the goal of attracting further economic development and infrastructure inside the increased public transit zones.

The committee took testimony from several groups representing transportation authorities and local governments, most of which were in support.

Based on testimony, the committee plans to work on a clearer definition within the measures of transit-oriented development.

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