City Of Moore Withdraws From Regional Transportation Authority

The Regional Transportation Authority continues to struggle with support from surrounding cities like Moore for their passenger rail. 

The Moore City Manager Brooks Mitchell said it all comes down to money. Amid economic hardship the city didn’t want to increase sales tax. 

In a unanimous city council vote, the City of Moore voted to withdraw from the RTA. 

“It’s mainly about an allocation of resources we had a bill if we were to stay in the RTA for about $75,000 for this next year,” said Mitchell. 

When finished, the passenger rail will link Oklahoma City to surrounding metro areas. The City of Moore is just the latest town in the growing list of cities opting out. 

“The primary concern was the funding source. How much federal money would be available for this? What was the total cost? The RTA wanted to fund the local match through sales tax. Municipalities are funded through sales tax, so we are very protective of our sales tax rates,” he said. 

The city is concerned with how much a sales tax increase would affect residents. 

“Right now, we are in an inflationary period. There is some economic uncertainty. For expensive capital projects to depend on sales tax we didn’t feel was wise,” he said. 

Mitchell said residents have expressed interest in another form of public transportation within the city. 

“The City Council felt the best thing to do would be to take care of our own residents’ first and explore a bus service within Moore,” said the City Manager. 

Mitchell said the door remains open if they want to rejoin the RTA. 

“Once they get their capital cost determined and operating costs if Moore or any of the other cities want to return the RTA would give them a buy in cost,” he said. 

As of now, cities like Oklahoma City, Edmond and Norman are still a part of the RTA.