Arbor Update

Somehow these numbers don’t add up to me. The article reports that Ypsi is cutting it’s AATA payments by ”$53,000 … this year and roughly $83,000 next year.”

It goes on “AATA will continue the Ypsilanti routes, spending $25,000 to subsidize them this year and $30,000 next year.”

That leave a gap of $28k and $50k this year and next. Where does that come from?

Also, why did the AATA make this decision and then decide on “cancelling two public hearings on the increase that had been scheduled”?

Chuck, I think you are raising some really good points. I know that there are many people that would support a fare increase over suspension of service. I also know that currently the AATA has not plans to cut service, although what’s going to happen in the future is unclear. I encourage everyone to email the AATA to demand a public meeting to discuss these important community issues!

So…everyone I’ve heard from personally and in the media (community members, elected officials, AATA staff) supported a fare raise. In spite of that, the Board voted not to approve one. Why not?? I’m sure they mean well, but they don’t work on these issues day in and day out, and some of their comments don’t make that much sense to me. For instance, low-income people currently pay $.50 cents; this would go up to $.60, NOT $1.25.

I think the idea is that the money will come from staff and benefits, Chuck. Perhaps there are a few additional ways in which the costs could be cut with the Board working with the staff, but not everything can be solved by cost-cutting. They’ve already cut a lot of staff positions within AATA. What I’ve seen when organizations I’ve worked with only cut costs & staff and didn’t raise revenue is that you end up with an angry, understaffed, demoralized organization. (AKA an unproductive one…which means you don’t actually save any money at all.) This isn’t worth a savings of $.25 per ride.

Like Lisa, most folks I’ve talked to have supported a fair increase (including folks who are very sensative to affordability issues for low-income riders).

So it does seem shady that the board rushed this through and cancelled the public hearings.

It’s enough to make one (not me) wonder how the AATA board gets selected and when vacancies are coming up.

Lisa, although low-income riders can get a half-fare card, it takes much time, effort, and savvy to get one. Not to say that a fare increase is a bad idea necessarily, but the assumption that everyone who is low-income pays half-fare is incorrect.