Oakland, Macomb Counties Agree To Regional Transit Proposal

DETROIT (WWJ) - Voters in Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties will be able to vote on a regional transit proposal in November. It is an about-face -- after assurances that Macomb and Oakland Counties would also be well served by the deal.

"It was the combination of Warren Evans, Mike Duggan, L. Brooks Patterson and myself and a representative of Washtenaw county - got together and made sure we had conversations about some of the issues that were outlining and one of those was governance structure," said Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel.

Hackel is now on board with the plan after expressing concern last week, takes issue with recent commentaries on the issue, and in particular, with a political cartoon.

"But to come out there and make this kind of statement, that Macomb County and Oakland County are holding this up because of some kind of a racial overtone was absolutely disgusting," said Hackel.

He says there were similar concerns from county representatives; "There was a chance for people to be marginalized if they didn't shore up the issue with the voting structure, that it shouldn't be just a simple majority, it needs to be a simple majority with at least one vote coming from each county and the city of Detroit. And that was the big hold up."

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan says a regional transit plan will allow southeast Michigan to compete with other metropolitan areas across the country for development and investment.