Project Connect Goes to the Voters on Nov. 3

VIEW THE AAA INFOGRAPHIC ON THE PROPERTY TAX IMPACTS OF PROJECT CONNECT

$7.1 billion plan for light rail, buses and more heads to Austin voters

Austin City Council on Aug. 13 adopted the city's budget for its next fiscal year. Council also ordered a Nov. 3 election to seek voter approval for additional taxes to fund Project Connect, which is Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority's long-term infrastructure plan for a high-capacity regional transit system.

The $7.1 billion plan would mostly be funded by an additional property tax rate of 8.75 cents per $100 of taxable value on the city portion of residents' property tax bills. Capital Metro hopes federal funds pick up the remaining 45% of Project Connect's costs.

Austin voters have been asked to make major decisions on local transit before. Capital Metro was created by a voter referendum back in 1985 — and voters have shot down previous rail proposals in 2000 and 2014.

But this vote comes as Austingrapples with worsening mobility challenges from its meteoric growth such as congestion, which the business community views as one of the biggest local issues next to affordability.

The system map for Project Connect includes two light rail lines, the Orange Line and the Blue Line. The Orange Line would run from North to South Austin through the University of Texas and downtown along major corridors like Lamar Street, Guadalupe Street and South Congress Avenue. The Blue Line would run from North Austin out to Southeast Austin and Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. A downtown transit tunnel between Republic Square and the Austin Convention Center would be the convergence point for the whole system.

Officials hope they can eventually add light rail on a third line — the Gold Line. Upgrades to the existing commuter Red Line and beginning commuter rail on the Green Line to Northeast Austin and potentially Manor and Elgin are in Project Connect's later phases. Project Connect also features park-and-rides and expansions of bus and circulator service.

Austin Mayor Steve Adler called Project Connect a "comprehensive transit system that will ease traffic, get essential workers to jobs, help our climate and much more."Urbanists and transit advocates are generally excited about the system map and modes of transportation in Project Connect, but opponents of the plan believe it would be too costly to taxpayers, particularly during the economic hardships from the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.