Opponents of the proposed $70 million tax increase for the ITP (or Rapid) will be working this weekend and up to May 5th in nearly all of the cities voting on the ITP.
The organization’s mission is to promote good governance with a rational tax policy and has fought other millages in the past. Its most recent battle was to stop the second failed GRCC millage request in August 2007. KCFFR credited itself partially in the defeat by turning out double the no votes in certain key precincts which helped defeat the millage by a razor thin margin. It also was the only organized opposition in May 2007 to the Rapid’s last millage request in which they advertised against the millage request on the side of one of the ITP’s buses with a “This Pig Stinks” campaign.
“One of the main arguments for this new rapid transit system is that it will move commuters quickly from the suburbs to downtown Grand Rapids but that just is not true,” says KCFFR spokesman, Eric Larson. “According to the ITP’s statistics the new Silver Line will only average less than 22 mph up Division (or 9.8 miles in 27 minutes). The idea that you can put a rapid transit bus on surface streets and save time along a street with so many intersections suggests some poo planning. Usually these transit lines run along freeways or limited access roads so they can move commuters quickly. Worse yet, the current bus line that serves Division Ave. travels 12 miles in 33 minutes (or 21.8 mph) according to the Rapid’s own website meaning it travels as fast as the proposed rapid line. To call this project a $70 million dollar boondoggle is an understatement.”
The group expects to continue its neighborhood campaigning up until next Tuesday’s election and feels optimistic about its chances in defeating the millage.
