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6/8/2007
A love-hate relationship with transit
Can’t live with ‘em, can’t live without ‘em. Those big buses, in many parts of the state riding around empty all of the time. Big (empty) buses that provide needed transport for lots of folks. Yup, I acknowledge all of that. Even here in the land of plenty of parking and no-such-thing-as-a-traffic-backup. Lots of us need those buses – some folks once in a while, some folks a couple of times every day.
Just like our roads, lots of different taxes pay for those bus systems. Federal taxes, state taxes, property taxes, and whatever other money they can get their hands on.
But there’s a bit of a wrinkle in the system. When an area served by a transit system gets to a population of 200,000 or more, the feds say “you’re big boys now” – and they pull their (our) contribution to the operating budget. And that’s exactly what’s happening to Valley Transit following the 2010 census – just like that. More than $1M short of operating dollars. And the same is likely to happen to Green Bay Transit as well.
Valley Transit is a great example of how these transit systems work. The system is owned by the City of Appleton. But it services lots of municipalities in addition to Appleton. So Valley Transit puts together a budget, then has to work with all these municipalities to convince each one of them to chip in their share. It’s an arduous system. But… it’s what we’ve got.
So… to their credit, given the very real possibility of no more federal bucks, the transit folks around here have jumped into action. Looking for money, of course!
Regionalization really makes sense
What Valley Transit wants to do is to have the legislature pass facilitating language allowing the creation of a regional Fox Valley transit operation. Very much like Fox Valley Tech., or even like a sewer service area, the transit system would be governed and operated by one board, bypassing the slew of municipalities it has to deal with now. It makes complete sense. That’s the love part.
Except when it comes to its taxing authority
But just like a lover, this regional business holds a dirty little secret. Creating a Regional Transit Authority (RTA) creates another whole new taxing entity. Again, just like Fox Valley Tech. Run by a board of directors that isn’t accountable to taxpayers. Take a look at your property tax bill. There in black and white is what you owe the technical college district. Funny thing. No elected representatives, and tech district tax levy increases have outpaced all other taxing entity increases in the last decades.
So here we’re going to create still another distinct taxing authority. Theoretically (but not required), your city taxes should decrease by the amount you have to pay into any new RTA. Ok, so let’s say, in the beginning (maybe just like that lover?), that tax switch is on the up-and-up. But then let’s say the state starts to see those new RTA’s as having the potential to support more of their own transit systems – and the state begins ever so slowly to withdraw funding support.
Or the counties around here, which so far have been successful in holding off a ½ cent sales tax, begin to see the transit (or is it transportation?) authority as a stealth road fund – a “road tax” that does the deficit-dirty-work that otherwise a new ½ cent county sales tax might have.
A new taxing authority. Just too tempting for all kinds of programs that can always use more money. And that, for any fellow skeptics out there, is the “hate” part.
COMMENTS
I'm glad to see that transit is getting an airing here. Though I cannot give any details on how the whole VTA system is run it is as you say, I can't live with the fact that the buses are empty much of the time. I was one of those who saw red when passing in my car at the empty huge vehicles... until I had a car breakdown.
During those days I learned how to navigate on the bus after not doing it for many years. I was able to see the special lifts and drops that the bus can do (like a lowrider's hydraulics) which allows the wheelchair bound to get in and out under their own chair power.
After using a couple of the routes to go get groceries (one or two carry-on bags at a time) I saw more people riding with me. The VTA is (as is my understanding after a recent meeting of ECOS- Fox Valley) trying to get people past the notion that mass transit is only for one class of people-- the poor ones. Ridership will always suffer until these predjudices are overcome.
Secondly, it has been demonstrated that Appleton has the lowest population density (sprawl problem) for any peer city its size in the state. A regional transit authority will have to come up with models like flexible routes and more but smaller vehicles to service such an area. In reality this solution is more practical than the vaunted light rail or trolley systems. Until such time as the Fox Valley begins the process of 'infill' to redensify and reduce the sprawl, then these interim systems will have to be developed.
With regard to taxes for mass transit, it is better to use something you pay for than to not use it. Perhaps when the cost of a bus ride is less than the fuel it takes to put in the individual gas tank more people will see the advantages of mass transit. Like many others I have had to come to this opinion kicking and screaming, full of panic with no car. The panic passes. It really does.
Lon Ponschock (Fri Jun 08 05:15:50 2007)
By what moral authority do they take money from my pocket to pay for someone else's commute or shopping trip?
Brian Heyer (Fri Jun 08 07:43:14 2007)
Lon,
After seeing a recent article in the PC about VT I took at look at their routes. My trip to work is 12 miles through town, 15 on the highway (when 441 isn't a torn up anyway). So that trip in a car takes about 15-20 minutes on average.
I looked at the VT schedules and that same trip would take 3 buses and just shy of THREE hours.
To me that's what's wrong with our version of mass transit. It's not even a feasible option for most people.
Mike (Fri Jun 08 08:16:32 2007)
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