RTA votes to stop rental car fee to pay for planning KRM

From an article by Joe Potente in the Kenosha News:

A fee on rental car transactions in southeastern Wisconsin is going away — at least for a while.

The Southeastern Regional Transit Authority voted Friday not to reinstate a $2 fee that had been charged to help pay for planning of the Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee commuter rail proposal.

That was after the new board voted narrowly to appoint Kenosha County designee Karl Ostby as its chairman.

Created by the Legislature as part of the 2009-11 state budget, the authority is enabled to levy up to $18 per rental transaction to support the local costs of KRM’s development.

Debate over fee

Maintaining the $2 fee for now was discussed, but a majority of the board favored holding off on any fee until a KRM grant plan is finalized, Antaramian said in a phone interview Friday. Antaramian said nobody on the board has shown an interest in levying the full $18.

“I think certain members of the board felt that there wasn’t a need until we actually saw a proposal,” said Antaramian, who supported continuing the $2 charge.

However, Ostby said the question of the fee is likely to arise again next month, after the authority has a clearer idea of KRM’s costs.

Posted in: Rail,Transit