cartky.org

They mayor & Barry Barker took time out from the ped summit banquet to address our current situation with TARC funding.

Recall that as fuel prices rise yet occupational tax stays flat, TARC is cutting routes. For example this year they're trying to decide between two options, both of them hitting working people squarely in the chest:

• raise fares $0.10 and cut $1 million in service
• raise fares $0.25 and cut $0.5 million in service

CART in general wants more money for public transit, but most especially we want public transit to get automatically funded more when fuel prices increase. This makes sense for two reasons:

1. TARC's expenses are closely linked to fuel prices.
2. Demands for TARC's service rises when automobiles are priced out of people's reach.

Both men were concerned about the situation, but as you'd expect didn't have any quick fixes handy - or they'd already have used them. Barry clarified that TARC's operational funding - paying drivers & gasoline - comes from the following sources:

• 60% local occupational tax (0.2% of occupational tax, IIRC)
• 20% federal
• 17% farebox

None of those scale with demand, except farebox, and it's hard to make a profit on that because TARC is the most affordable mobility for many people - it's a regressive tax on the poor.

We quickly reviewed the other ways to fund transit, but came up with nothing:

• KY State Legislature is busy trying to walk & chew gum at the same time
• Local Sales Tax "can't do it, yet"

Here's some stuff I remembered later:

• Tax overlays, ala museum plaza
• Ending subsidies for parking, instead charging a "sin tax" on parking.
• Pegging the transit/road ratio of local or MPO funds to the price of fuel. When gas prices rise, roads are used less, and they should theoretically need maintenance at a slower rate. Put that money into the alternatives people are actually using.

Note that I'm not so worried about this summer's rate hikes. I'm worried about what's going to happen when we hit peak oil in 2012. Last year oil was $62 / barrel. Now it's $126, over double. Is it linear? Is it geometric? Who cares? We need a way to automatically react to changing needs of our community.

The current TARC funding model will result in a death-spiral of service cuts and fare hikes, and has the potential to lead to civil unrest. When the automobile becomes lawn art, it would be nice if the city planners had, y'know, a plan.