Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris unveiled his plan to fund the Memphis Area Transportation Authority, or MATA, and it will hit those who own three or more cars in the wallet.
The plan includes implementing a sustainability fee for families that own three or more cars. "Their car registration process every year will go from $110 per year to about $250 per year for the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, or seventh car," said Harris.
Harris anticipates the fee will generate around $9 million to go towards transportation funding. The plan also calls for the county to dedicate 1.5%, or $1 million, to transit funding to bring the total to $10 million.
The fee would apply to anyone who lives in the City of Memphis and in the unincorporated areas of Shelby County.
“The reality is, very few residents would face any increase in taxes or any increase in their car registration fees,” said Harris.
Gary Rosenfeld, CEO for MATA, said the fee is a reasonable amount in order to start the process to fully fund public transportation.
“In the transit vision study plan, a vast majority of people said they would pay more money for good public transportation,” said Rosenfeld.
Jose Hernandez opposes the plan because his family would be directly impacted. "That's not going to be convenient for me," said Hernandez.
The county commission will review the plan for the next five months. Harris is hoping to bring the plan up for a full vote in February of 2020.
For more details on the transit proposal, click here.
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