Increasing labor and fuel costs for TheBus have forced the city to deal with more than $10 million in annual operating costs, which makes a proposal to eliminate bus fees entirely for seniors and disabled absurd. These folks already get a great deal for taking TheBus, as many of them acknowledge; being offered free rides, as proposed before the City Council, should be out of the question.
Adults now pay $2.50 per ride, $60 for a monthly pass and $660 for an annual pass. Seniors 65 or older and disabled passengers pay only $10 a month or $30 for a full year, including those who take TheHandi-Van. Bill 58 would eliminate those charges entirely. Turning those into freebies would eliminate $2 million in revenues, according to Nelson Koyanagi, acting director of the city Budget and Fiscal Services Department. That’s revenue that the city can ill afford to lose, especially with Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s promise to restore some routes soon after last year’s rider outcry.
Council Chairman Ernie Martin introduced the free-ride bill last summer after the city’s bus system underwent those unpopular route changes, saying, "Many of our seniors are on fixed income, and with the rising cost in services, what I’m looking to is to see where the Council can provide some relief."
The city estimated optimistically that under Martin’s proposal, 14.2 percent of general fund and highway fund revenues will be required to subsidize TheBus, TheHandi-Van and the new train system by 2030. A report by federal consultant Porter & Associates estimated that operating TheBus and TheHandi-Van could cost city taxpayers $1 billion more in subsidies by 2030 that the city has projected.
"A lot of our seniors can no longer sit on the bus," Martin said at a Council meeting last week. "If they’re not guaranteed a seat, why make them pay for it?"
Martin clearly is overflowing with sympathy for those in their senior years. But fortunately, a record percentage of Americans in their late 60s and well into their 70s or beyond are in good health. And as it turns out, the increased number of aging Baby Boomers are willing and able to continue paying for the bus service at the current senior level.
"Thirty dollars a year is pretty cheap," said Barbra Armentrout, an outspoken advocate for better bus service.
She expressed to the Council that free ridership would actually add more people onto buses that have grown more crowded because they run less frequently.
"Where are we going to put these people?" she asked.
TheBus is rightly regarded as an essential service and for many seniors is the only transportation to do their shopping or meet doctor’s appointments. That will be more so when TheBus is connected with the rail.
For now, Caldwell needs to make good on his campaign pledge to reverse some of the bus cuts, which were aimed at saving $7 million annually. Options are said to be under review.
"Mayor Caldwell’s goal is to roll out the most needed improvements this March, with more changes in May, and all improvements continuing into the new fiscal year this July," spokesman Jesse Broder Van Dyke said recently, though adding, "It is still premature to speculate on what the final decision will be."
Clearly, giving away $2 million in existing revenue to enable free rides is heading the wrong way. If anything, those funds are needed to help restore some route cuts that have resulted in undue hardship — beyond mere inconvenience — for a big chunk of riders.
