Woodbury's Weik defends CTIB membership

Talk about it

Renewed bickering over Washington County's participation in a quarter-percent transit sales tax flared at Tuesday's County Board meeting, with commissioners butting heads over whether the county should pull out of the metro mass transit funding mechanism.

Commissioner Bill Pulkrabek repeated his call for board members to take another formal vote on Washington County's membership in the Counties Transit Improvement Board (CTIB), saying he is "baffled with why this board is so afraid to take a simple vote on a position."

Pulkrabek has said he disagrees with the quarter-percent tax and voted against joining CTIB when the board voted narrowly to do so in April 2008.

Pulkrabek had a heated exchange with Board Chair Gary Kriesel, who called Pulkrabek's desire to leave CTIB "irresponsible."

The county assumed responsibility for $8 million in bond debt last year and, were commissioners to vote to exit CTIB, taxpayers would still have to pay the sales tax for a time.

CTIB projections show Washington County transit projects could see millions of dollars in funding in future years with continued participation in the five-county consortium.

Commissioner Lisa Weik of Woodbury restated her stance that assuming a portion of CTIB's debt last year was a "game-changer and that leaving the board would negatively impact taxpayers."

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