CAMPO votes to keep hanging with Cooper

Wade Cooper, the chair of the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s board of directors, scored another three-year tour of duty on Monday night. The Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization’s Transportation Policy Board voted unanimously to keep Cooper in his seat through June 1, 2020. Just before the vote, Cooper, who was originally appointed in 2014, affably but forebodingly referred to the transit agency’s financial outlook as revealed earlier in the day to its Finance, Audit, and Administration Committee, on which also sits CAMPO Board Member Terry Mitchell. “I think we had an easy three years, but Mr. Mitchell and I got a financial report today that suggests the party’s over and we’re going to have to work for a living now,” he told the CAMPO board. “But I’m glad to saddle up and do that if y’all will have me back.” Recent budget briefings before the full board have revealed that sales tax revenue has been slowing in recent years, despite the region’s growing population.