Bill would abolish bus fare program for low-income riders

The Honolulu City Council is considering eliminating a reduced bus fare program for “extremely low-income” riders.

Bill 77 would also increase fares for most riders. The latest draft released last week went before the Council’s Budget Committee, which opted to defer action on it. The proposal would eliminate the “Bus Pass Subsidy Program,” a little-known initiative that reduces the price of monthly bus passes for those earning no more than 30 percent of Honolulu’s area median income.

In Honolulu, that means families of four that bring in $35,500 or less annually and single people who bring in $24,500 or less can apply for a subsidized bus pass through the program.

The program reduces monthly bus passes by $10 for eligible adult riders and $6.50 for eligible youth riders. Currently, it reduces the prices of monthly passes to $60 and $28.50, for adults and youths, respectively.

Without the program adults could pay $80 for a monthly bus pass if the bill passes. Monthly passes for minors would remain at $35.

The bill would increase single-ride fares to $3 from $2.75, day passes to $6 from $5.50, monthly passes for seniors to $8 from $6 and annual passes to $45 from $35 and single TheHandi-Van fares to $2.25 from $2.

The Department of Transportation Services reported that 23 adults and 14 minors in Honolulu participated in the program in 2018.

Ann Kobayashi, interim chairwoman for the Council, authored the new version of the bill. She told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser DTS recommended replacing the program — either in this bill or in a new one — with one that could attract more participants.

“We want to make it a different kind of process so more people can take advantage of it,” she said.

Kobayashi said the process to get the discounted bus pass is “cumbersome” and requires applicants to reveal their income.

“We feel that there are a lot more than 23 people [and 14 minors] that should be qualified to participate,” Kobayashi said. “We’re hoping that there are hundreds of people.”

Kobayashi suggested creating a replacement program that would automatically qualify eligible riders who might be a part of other federal programs.

Those against eliminating the subsidy program said there are alternatives to removing the program.

“Let’s find another way to make this work,” said Cheryl Soon, chairwoman of the Honolulu Rate Commission. “This is a category of people who desperately need transportation.”

Soon said social services that provide bus passes for certain groups of people do exist but are not enough.

“There are social services that do that, and that’s a good thing,” she said. “It’s not a substitute, however.”

Soon and others said they were surprised by the proposal to eliminate the program because an updated draft of the bill was released to the public the morning of the Budget Committee meeting.

She said the Rate Commission supported the bill in part because it had determined that extremely low-income residents needed the subsidy program, but it could not support the latest draft with the program removed.

After hearing Soon’s concerns, Councilwoman Heidi Tsuneyoshi urged her colleagues to defer the bill. The committee agreed to withhold action until its Feb. 27 meeting.

“This could be very possibly their only means of transportation,” she said about those who would be affected if the program was stopped. “Although small in number, it has a great impact to those who are using it.”

Soon is also concerned that the proposal to remove the bus program would hold back the other measures in the bill.

“I’d hate to see this extremely low-income issue hold up all the others things that had come to some point of agreement,” she said.