Updated 12:01 a.m. CST
The Metro general mobility fund referendum has passed, as 78.8 percent of voters approved the referendum with 99 percent of the precincts reporting, according to unofficial results.
Metro Chairman Gilbert Garcia said that although he is still waiting for the final vote to be counted, he is pleased with the results.
"I think it's wonderful the public responded this way," he said. "I think they recognize that transit has been such a divisive issue in this community. For the first time the different constituents, the multi-cities, the City of Houston and Harris County got together to work on transit this time. I think the public responded, and I'm very pleased."
If the referendum passes, it will continue the general mobility payments until at least 2025, but it will also give additional money to Metro to address funding issues such as paying down the organization's short-term debt and restoring ridership, Garcia said.
Updated 8:54 p.m. CST
Metro's general mobility fund referendum appears poised to pass, with 78.27 percent of voters supporting it, compared to 21.73 percent against the measure with 12 percent of precincts reporting. So far, 415,578 voters have voted for the referendum, while 21.73 percent have voted against it.
Posted 7:21 p.m. CST
The majority of early voters support the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County general mobility fund voter referendum, which will determine the future of the program. Seventy-eight percent of early voters in Metro's service area support the referendum, while 21.6 percent voted have voted against it so far, according to unofficial results.
Metro has set aside 25 percent of its sales tax collections into its general mobility fund for road improvement projects since 1988. That money is split between the organization's 15 member cities—including the City of Houston, Katy and 13 smaller cities—and Harris County. The money is used for road improvement projects as opposed to mass transit such as rail lines or additional buses.
The county has received about $500 million from the fund since 1988, and it has gone toward various road improvement projects in Cy-Fair and Katy, including work on Spring Cypress Road and Katy Fort Bend Road.
The Metro board was required to call another voter referendum on the future of the general mobility fund per the last referendum in 2003.
If approved, this year's referendum calls for the general mobility fund to continue until at least 2025, but it does require Metro to spend some of the money it gets back on efforts to increase ridership. It also caps future sales tax allocations at 2014 levels until 2025, splitting any growth in the sales tax between Metro and its member cities and the county.
If the referendum fails, the general mobility program would cease to exist in its current form after September 2014.
All results are unofficial until canvassed.
