What would happen if your favorite transit options like the Ride Free Lafayette, Lyons Flyer, and The Climb went away?
These services are partially funded by 1/10 of a cent sales tax and operated by local nonprofit Via Mobility Services, but this tax is set to expire on June 30, 2024. Since voters initially approved it in 2001, this sales tax has helped launch nine transit services and programs, pave 97 miles of roads and shoulders, develop 23 miles of regional trails, complete 13 intersection safety improvements, and create six new pedestrian underpasses. Your vote for Boulder County’s Ballot Measure 1C supports transit options and safety in our community.
Your Tax Dollars In Action:
How Your Pennies Help Boulder County Receive Robust Support from Government Funding Agencies
The 1C sales tax allows Boulder County to raise the matching funds necessary to leverage additional state and federal transportation funding. When our community raises funds to support transit projects, we can receive up to millions of dollars of funding benefits from national initiatives. Over the last 15 years, $121 million in County Sales Tax funding has allowed our community to leverage $269 million in regional, state, and federal funding, for a total of $390 million supporting Boulder County transit services.
This sales tax supports transit options you benefit from, like the brand-new Lyons Flyer, which restores commuter transit bus service along US 36 between Lyons and Boulder. The service replaces the Y route, formerly operated by the Regional Transportation District (RTD). For the next five years, funding from a mix of sources, including this sales tax, RTD, the Town of Lyons, and the City of Boulder, will make the Lyons Flyer a reality.
Via Mobility Services, a nonprofit and social enterprise, operates the Lyons Flyer and uses 100% of the net revenue generated from contracts like this to fund its founding mission services. For example, it has operated its Via Paratransit program for more than 43 years in Boulder County, providing safe, accessible transportation for thousands of older adults and people with disabilities.
The sales tax also helps our community access grant opportunities like the Federal Transportation Administration’s Section 5310 program supporting “Enhanced Mobility of Seniors & Individuals with Disabilities,” like Via Mobility Services’ nonprofit accessible paratransit services. For our community transit programs to qualify for federal funding like 5310, we must work together to raise funds that match some of the grant funds we receive to operate them.
What Your Vote YES Means
Boulder County’s Ballot Measure 1C, in the November 8 election, asks voters like you to consider extending an existing 0.1 percent transportation sales tax to sustain funding for our transportation network without raising the rate beyond the current level. Your YES vote means a continuation of funding supporting municipal transit, shuttles, paratransit services, and more.
What Your Vote NO Means
If the ballot initiative doesn’t pass, Boulder County will lack dedicated funding for transportation system improvements and seed money to bring outside funding to our community.
Keep Boulder County Moving
Via Mobility Services has endorsed County Ballot Issue 1C as part of the “Keeping Boulder County Moving” campaign. Join us in passing County Ballot Issue 1C to help Boulder County sustain and expand the critical multimodal services we depend on. We encourage you to vote YES.
Learn more and donate to the “Keeping Boulder County Moving” campaign: YESon1C.com
Contact: Zoe DeVito, Director of Development and Communications, zdevito@viacolorado.org, 720-507-8606
