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Follow TURFWentworth wants ATD road money returned to roads
By Vianna Davila
Updated 12:35 a.m., Wednesday, March 28, 2012
State Sen. Jeff Wentworth has requested a formal opinion from Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott regarding the use of Advanced Transportation District funds for VIA Metropolitan Transit's downtown streetcar project.
In the filing, submitted Monday afternoon, Wentworth asks for consideration of three points:
• Whether VIA entered into a contract with the voters when its campaign literature, supporting the 2004 election to create the ATD quarter-cent sales tax, promised the money would never go to light rail. Streetcar, the letter states, is the same as light rail. VIA has said the two types of transit are different — that a streetcar system doesn't constitute light rail.
• Whether VIA and Bexar County may use ATD revenue to pay for a streetcar project when the transit agency said only half the money would go toward public transit. The amount of ATD-related revenue that VIA and the county are proposing to use for streetcars, the letter states, would mean more than half the overall ATD money would go to public transportation.
Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Wentworth-asks-Abbott-to-weigh-in-on-spending-3438566.php#ixzz1qXWbkaji