While public meetings are planned to gauge reaction to Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris' proposal for funding Memphis Area Transit Authority improvements, some people aren't waiting to voice their opinion.

The Harris plan calls for charging addresses with more than three registered vehicles a $145 per vehicle sustainability fee that would be earmarked for MATA.

Harris outlined the proposal last week to County Commission members during an executive update. The plan creates the fee for residential and commercial addresses with three or more vehicles. It would be charged for each vehicle above three, or about 17% of the county, Harris said. It’s a figure his office based on U.S. Census data.

Harris unveils Transit Vision 3.0 and funding plan

The fee would generate about $9 million that would be dedicated for MATA. The county would then put in $1 million from the capital improvement plan budget.

The commission has been asked to vote on a MATA funding plan by February 2020.

Meanwhile, public meetings are scheduled for community input.

Some people aren’t waiting until then to share their thoughts, though. 

“Everybody with three cars, that’s not necessarily rich,” said Onnie Wadley, 64, as she waited for a bus at MATA’s American Way Transit to hunt for a job.

The plan isn’t fair, Wadley said.

Mary Miller, 53, a life-long bus rider, was also waiting for a bus at the Airways Transit Center.

“I don’t even see what they’ve got to do with us at all. Because they have their own transportation and we don’t,” Miller said. “They can have as many cars as they wish. Why should they have to pay anything for MATA?”

She thinks MATA is a “great transportation system.”

“MATA needs to figure out another way to get some money because that ain’t got nothing to do with the people riding the bus,” Miller said.

Rider advocates also aren’t in agreement about the plan, which some say could actually harm the case for public transit.

Sammie Hunter is co-chairman of the Memphis Bus Riders Union and said there are those in leadership within his organization who like the plan and want it to move forward.

He does not.

“I don’t think people should be penalized because they've got three or four cars,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to get the money that way.”

Harris’ plan would spend money on the transit authority’s eight most “successful routes,” another area with which Hunter takes issue.

Money should be spent on better weekend service, extending routes and building bus shelters, he said.

In 2012, Memphis voters soundly rejected a 1-cent gas tax increase that could have potentially raise up to $6 million exclusively for MATA.

Hunter hopes the county might try that again.

“Or we could put something on the hotel tax. Or on those scooters they’re bringing in,” he said.

This plan has the potential to create bad blood, some feel.

“You’re going to have people mad at public transit because they probably see public transit as nothing now,” Hunter said. “If they’ve got to foot this bill, it’s going to be a problem.”

Johnnie Mosley heads up Citizens for Better Service and sees the public relations problems the sustainability fee could create.

“It’s not a good move in terms of getting people in favor of providing funds for MATA. It would do the opposite of what it was supposed to do,” Mosley said.

He thought Harris had planned to speak with rider groups and possibly hold public meetings before presenting his idea to the County Commission.

“We could have saved him some headaches,” he said. “I’m hearing from people now who say ‘no way.’ I heard from one guy who said if he had to pay that fee he wouldn’t care if anybody rode a bus. I’m hearing that kind of conversation, which I don’t think is good for Memphis or good for Shelby County.”

Harris said in a statement the county should make a "major, historic investment" in public transit and that this is the start of the conversation.

"Major transit investment only gets done if our leaders have the courage to take on the issue. The criticism of one of the first plans for making a significant investment in transit will likely make it much harder to persuade other leaders to get involved, to speak out and to advocate around the issue of transit," he said.

The sustainability fee is an attempt to "marry problem and solution" Harris said, like access to jobs, traffic congestion and the preservation of our shared environment.

"If implemented, the sustainability fee can be used to generate revenue that will expand access to jobs, reduce traffic congestion, save emissions and help preserve our shared environment," he said. "However, the sustainability fee was not conceived as a way to 'tax the rich' or pursue some other stereotypically partisan objective."

In addition to the fee, the plan gives two seats on the MATA board to County Commissioners, allows county employees to ride the bus for free and mandates that the City of Memphis continue to its current level of funding. In the fiscal 2020 budget, the commission allocated $2 million for MATA for capital improvements and asked for two board seats as well.

Harris will be recognized at a MICAH (Memphis Interfaith Coalition for Action and Hope) meeting Sept. 15 for his support of Transit Vision 3.0, an initiative that began in 2017. But there will not be an opportunity for the public to share thoughts or ask questions. The meeting is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. at Mt. Vernon Baptist Church, 620 Parkrose Road.

“We’ll be thanking the mayor for his endorsement of Transit Vision 3.0, not getting into the details on the funding formula, said Leo Arnoult, co-chairman of the MICAH transit subcommittee.

Town hall meetings to discuss the plan are scheduled for noon Sept. 26 at Impact Baptist Church, 2025 Clifton Ave. in Frayser, and at 6 p.m. Oct. 7 at Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church, 70 N. Bellevue in Midtown.