HAMILTON — The Butler County Regional Transit Authority, in a desperate fight for survival, decided Tuesday to place a five-year, quarter-percent sales-tax increase on the Nov. 5 ballot.

        The sales-tax increase, which would generate about $8 million a year, would enable the Transit Authority to restore most of the fixed routes it had cut in the past year and to resume some Dial-A-Ride services.

        A defeat of the tax increase will cause the demise of the public transit agency at the end of the year.

        The Transit Authority will need about $5.5 million a year for its bus service, said Sterling Uhler, Transit Authority Board president.

        But the board had to ask for a quarter-percent increase because state law requires sales-tax increases to be in quarter-percent increments.

        The agency can channel its excess revenue for road projects, right-of-way improvements, bike paths and other transportation-related projects, Mr. Uhler said.

        Last year, Butler County voters rejected two quarter-percent public transit sales-tax proposals. The second defeat, in last November's election, was 52 percent to 48 percent.

        “We have to have a stronger grass-roots campaign than we had the last time,” Mr. Uhler said. “We need to do more neighborhood canvassing and have more people at the polls on Election Day.”

        But the first order of business will be to organize a campaign committee and raise money for it.

        For this tax increase to be successful, it must do better in West Chester and Liberty townships than it did in its two defeats last year, Mr. Uhler said. In last November's election, one out of every three Liberty votes and three out of every five West Chester votes were cast against the tax increase.

        “If we can get close to breaking even in Liberty and West Chester, we'll win,” Mr. Uhler said.

        Richard Holzberger, Transit Authority Board member and a Hamilton councilman, asked that the transit tax issue be postponed to a special election early next year so that it wouldn't compete with the police and fire levy Hamilton plans to place on the November ballot.

        But Transit Authority officials said the sales-tax increase must go on the November ballot because the agency will have no money by the end of the year.

        Courtney Combs is the only Butler County commissioner who will support the Transit Authority's sales tax increase. The commissioners this week decided not to place their own half-percent sales tax increase on the November ballot because they thought it had no chance of passing. The presence of the public transit sales-tax increase and Hamilton's police and fire levies were factors in their decision.

        Commissioners Mike Fox and Chuck Furmon dislike the Transit Authority's emphasis on fixed routes. They say the county would be better served by bidding public transit services and issuing vouchers for point-to-point bus services.

        “I don't understand this obsession they have with fixed routes,” Mr. Fox said. “That, in my opinion, is dead wrong. I don't think voters are going to support empty buses on fixed routes that take people to places they don't want to go.”

        Carla Lakatos, executive director of the Transit Authority, said fixed routes serve a larger sector of the public than vouchers would. The agency's surveys during the past year show that a lot of people want fixed routes, Mr. Uhler said.

        Gary Becker, attorney for the Transit Authority, said no private provider could offer the level of service the Transit Authority does at a lower cost.

        The Transit Authority fell into a financial crisis last year when its sales-tax proposal failed twice and it was unable to replace the revenue that was lost when its state and federal grants ran out.

        Mr. Uhler urged board members and staff to recruit as many volunteers as possible for the campaign.

        “I think we can win,” he said. “But we need to buckle up and go.”

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