Mountain Line is the first local levy on the ballot. This is a Primary Election, so there will be three unique ballots available at the polls – a Democratic ballot, a Republican ballot, and a Non-Partisan ballot. You can view the sample ballots below. 

On the Democratic ballot, we are at the top of page 2 in the middle column. On the Republican ballot, we are on page 6 in the top-left corner. On the Non-Partisan ballot, we are on page 2 in the top-left corner. In all cases, look for the heading “Monongalia County Urban Mass Transportation Authority Levy”. 

Click here to view sample ballots on the County Clerks Website.

We will use the money from the levy to keep critical transit services for thousands of working families, employers, seniors, students, and citizens with disabilities. To maintain the services we already provide, we need to make up for the funding we’re losing out on from the County Commission ($450,000), and the loss of federal funding to replace vehicles and equipment ($550,000). The majority of this levy request is to make up for those funding cuts.

In addition, we want to continue to best serve Monongalia County in the future, and we understand that will include expanding our service into newly developing areas ($500,000), and extending our evening service hours ($375,000).

For the owner of a home with an assessed value of $100,000, the levy would cost $22 a year – less than $2 a month. Keep in mind, the levy cost depends on the assessed value of your property, so the answer varies.

Raising the fare from $.75 up 33% to $1.00 would raise about $60,000 in funding. The County Commission is eliminating $465,000 in funding so a reasonable increase in fares won't cover the lost revenue.  Even if we raised fares to $1.50 (double the current price), it would generate only about a third of funding that is being lost at the county level alone.

Mountain Line will be forced to cut more than 6,000 service hours on July 3rd, including eliminations and reductions of many routes. We will be unable to provide service to any newly growing areas of Monongalia County – such as Mylan Park, or the new exit off I-79.

In addition, our vehicle replacements will need to be smaller, lighter duty vehicles that will at times be over capacity, leaving people standing at the curb.

The link below shows the routes that would be eliminated or impacted on July 3rd if the levy fails.

http://site.busride.org/LevyServiceImpactsforMorgantown.pdf

Simply put – the buses aren’t always empty. Like any business, transit service has busier and slower times. If you go to a popular restaurant at 3 pm in the afternoon, it probably isn't full. But at 6 pm on a Friday night, you’ll need a reservation. We deal with the same issues - we frequently leave passengers standing at the curb because the bus is full. Some routes are standing room only on a regular basis. We aim to remain highly efficient by using different size buses on different routes, based on capacity. 

Our partnership with WVU certainly makes up a large chunk of our ridership. The University funds the entire cost of three routes, the Blue and Gold, the Valley View, and the Campus PM late night buses. In addition to footing the bill for those routes, any other WVU rides (on any other route) are paid for by WVU at the exact same cost ($0.75 cents) as everyone else. WVU is already paying its fair share.

Mountain Line already runs one of the most efficient systems in the state. Compared to other transit systems in West Virginia, we have the 2nd largest number of riders, but have less local funding than six other major transit systems. We have the best cost recovery, and the lowest cost per passenger trip in the entire state. We’ve managed to grow our number of passenger rides by 350% and our service hours by 40% in the past 19 years – and all with almost no increase in local funding.

We understand that there are an extraordinary number of new tax levies on the ballot this May. Our staff lives and works in Monongalia County and we pay taxes here, too. While this is a difficult time for Mountain Line to ask for a tax increase that requires a 60% supermajority for passage, our needs are critical!

It would be terribly irresponsible of us to not pursue a levy in the face of these huge and immediate funding cuts. We would fail our riders and the residents of Morgantown and Monongalia County by slashing the services that people rely and depend on to get to work, to the doctor, to school, to shop, and to socialize.

To make matters worse, the people who will lose service include some of our most transit-dependent residents – those with the fewest options and alternatives. This includes many riders living in the more rural areas of our community, as well as our riders with disabilities and senior riders. 

Local residents use Mountain Line to make over 1,000,000 trips a year to jobs, stores, healthcare, appointments, and schools throughout Monongalia County. Major employers like WVU, healthcare providers, restaurants, retailers and many other businesses rely on us to transport workers and customers. National studies have shown that every $1 invested in transit returns $4 to our local economy. 

As for privatization - public transit exists because private transit operators went out of business across the country in the late 60's and early 70's. Transit service is subsidized across the United States without exception through a combination of local, state, and federal funding.