DELAWARE — Most Delaware County voters will decide on Nov. 3 whether to approve the county transit system’s first-ever sales and use tax, a 0.2% charge proposed by the Delaware County Regional Transit Authority. The measure is one of the countywide questions on the fall ballot in one of Ohio’s fastest-growing counties.
The arithmetic is straightforward: 0.2% works out to 20 cents on a $100 purchase of tangible goods or services. The tax would apply in the parts of the county outside the southern areas already served by the Central Ohio Transit Authority, where shoppers in parts of Columbus, Dublin and Westerville already pay a higher total rate that includes support for COTA. If approved, the total sales tax in the areas covered by the new transit tax would rise to 7.20%.
Transit officials say the current funding model is not keeping up. The authority now operates on fares, federal, state and local grants, and other operating assistance, and in fiscal year 2026 it spent $6.75 million while running an operating deficit of more than $2.2 million, which it is covering with reserves. A reserve-funded gap, the ballot case argues, is not a long-term plan for a growing county.
The proposed tax is estimated to raise about $10.5 million a year. With that revenue, the authority says it could add new service lines in Powell and Liberty Township and expand service in the city of Delaware and Orange Township, among other improvements — extending fixed-route reach into communities that have grown quickly while bus service remained limited.
The transit question is not the only countywide decision on the ballot. Delaware County voters will also weigh levies for the county Board of Developmental Disabilities and the Delaware-Morrow Mental Health and Recovery Services Board, along with a Delaware Area Career Center levy and a range of municipal, township and school issues, including a Sunbury charter amendment on data centers.
Early in-person voting in Ohio is already underway and runs through Nov. 1, with hours that vary and limited weekend times. Applications for absentee ballots must be received by boards of elections by the close of business on Oct. 27, and mailed or returned absentee ballots are due by 7:30 p.m. on Election Day.
Polls will be open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 3. For Delaware County residents, the transit vote will settle a basic question about how the county grows: whether bus service should remain funded patchwork-style from fares and grants, or be supported directly by the shoppers who use the county’s stores every day.