In August 2010, the Ozark Regional Transit governing board, a representative body comprising mayors and county judges, set an election date for a quartercent sales tax to support the transit system.

The transit we have now is welcome, but it’s too thin and infrequent.

There are many reasons for expanding it, beginning with the needs of the poor, the old, the young and the infirm; the need we all have for some alternative to the car; the car’s $9,000 per year expense; and the failure of our cars-only transportation system as seen in the congestion, ugliness and boredom of Interstate 540 along its commercial “developments” from Fayetteville through Bentonville.

Continued expansion of regional highways is a oneway ticket to nowhere. This is because highways will pull even more suburban sprawl out into our Ozark countryside, making masstransit (which operates eft ciently in compact regions and is our real ticket to a high quality of life) ineff ective.

Because the region has become less rural, federal law requires our transit system to lose $1.6 million in operating funds by 2013.

Without new funding, the transit system must seriously reduce operations, canceling all its fi xed routes. Thus the need for a tax election.

In a May 2011 survey conducted by the University of Arkansas Survey Research Center, Washington County citizens supported the tax proposal with 65 percent for and 23 percent against, whileBenton County supported it with 55 percent for and 34 percent against. Despite this preference and the crying need for the tax, Benton County’s Quorum Court chose not to even allow a vote on the issue.

In contrast, Washington County’s Quorum Court voted 11 to 1 to let citizens vote on the tax. That vote is planned for May 22. If it passes, the entire estimated $7 million annual tax receipts will be spent in Washington county, giving this county the transit system it truly needs and deserves. My guess is that Benton County, seeing marked improvements in Washington County’s quality of life, will then do likewise.

Now, just three weeks ago, comes the Northwest Arkansas Council’s Mike Malone to ask Washington County to cancel their election. Malone argued regional transit funding should be handled through the Regional Mobility Authority, transit andhighway needs should be considered simultaneously and the transit sales tax vote in May would unfavorably bias a half-cent statewide highway sales tax vote coming up in November.

Two days later the Quorum Court refused to cancel the election, saying they preferred to keep last year’s promise to voters.

What and who is the Northwest Arkansas Council? It’s a small, selfappointed, elite entity.

It operates rather like a regional Chamber of Commerce, except that its membership is closed and its proceedings secretive.

If you check out their website, you’ll see a sevenperson staff listed with Malone as president. But the council’s real power comes from the region’s multinational fi rms: Walmart, Tyson’s, J.B. Hunt and others. Present or former council decision-makers include Alice Walton; Lee Scott, former Walmart chief executive oft cer; Jim Walton, Walton heir andArvest Bank chairman;

Mark Simmons, Simmons Foods owner; J.B. Hunt;

Don Tyson; Rob Walton;

Jim Lindsey, eal estate entrepreneur; and Scott Van Laningham, regional airport CEO.

Several are among the world’s richest people.

Six Waltons collectively have more wealth than the bottom 30 percent of our nation (that’s 90 million people). Certainly the council and the Waltons have done some good things, including major funding for the wonderful planned Razorback Greenway walking and bicycling trail, the Walton Arts Center and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. They also launched the regional airport project. Today they are promoting their “Greater Northwest Arkansas Development Strategy” that includes lots of new highways, the Greenway and little else.

Regardless of what we might think about theseprojects, the council is entirely nonrepresentative of the people yet they are determining the layout and planning the future of our region. They represent the upper 1 percent for sure.

They have gone over the heads of the Washington County Quorum Court and the transit board. We need to know who these folks are, what companies they represent, and what is their infl uence on such other public bodies as the Benton County Quorum Court, the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission and the Regional Mobility Authority.

The council’s move to cancel a public vote promised one and a half years ago by elected oftcials is arrogant and wrong. Please keep this incident in mind as you consider the coming sales tax votes for highways and transit.

ART HOBSON IS A PROFESSOR EMERITUS OF PHYSICS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS.

Opinion, Pages 13 on 01/29/2012