Plan ends routes, raises fares

By LARRY SANDLER
lsandler@journalsentinel.com

Posted: July 22, 2007

Milwaukee County would raise bus fares from $1.75 to $2, drop 13 bus routes and shorten 13 others, under the Milwaukee County Transit System’s 2008 budget request.

Also, fares would rise from $3.25 to $4 on the Transit Plus vans that serve the county’s disabled and frail elderly residents. And Transit Plus service would be sliced to the minimum allowed by the federal government, replacing the current countywide door-to-door service with service only in areas near the shrinking bus routes.

Together, the fare hikes and service cuts would drive down regular bus ridership by 16% and Transit Plus ridership by 8%, transit officials estimate.

Some bus riders said Sunday they were disappointed in the proposal.

“For me, I would be at a loss,” said Joyce Kubiak as she got off the Route 64 bus at Southridge Mall Sunday afternoon. The 64, which generally runs along S. 60th St. from W. Greenfield Ave. to W. Grange Ave. before turning west to Southridge, is one of the routes proposed for elimination. She lives along the route and said, “I depend on it.”

County Executive Scott Walker said he doesn’t want to cut service, but everything would be on the table when he tries to balance the overall county budget before he sends it to the County Board in September. Through a spokesman, County Board Chairman Lee Holloway said he would fight to avoid either service cuts or fare hikes.

Although Walker and transit system Managing Director Anita Gulotta-Connelly said multiple factors – including rising employee and retiree health care costs – contributed to the proposed cuts, the budget request says the proposed $2.3 million spending reduction “is the result of significant service adjustments to meet targeted tax levy amounts.” Gulotta-Connelly said the county budget office told the bus system to chop its property tax support by nearly $1 million, reflecting Walker’s pledge to hold the line on property taxes.

Even worse times could be ahead. The proposed cuts would reduce service by 13%. But without new state or local funding, the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission has warned the bus system could face a 35% service cut by 2010, when it exhausts a pool of federal aid for major maintenance on buses.

The bus system’s plight led Walker, Holloway, Gulotta-Connelly and Mayor Tom Barrett to renew their calls for a new revenue source to take public transit off the property tax – and to speculate whether it would take a crisis to reach that goal.

“I do think we are on the edge of that crisis,” Gulotta-Connelly said.

Holloway “feels the transit system is dying without a dedicated funding source,” County Board spokesman Harold Mester said.

And Walker said he hoped the possible cuts and fare increases would spur the Legislature to act, adding, “Nothing else has worked thus far.”

Milwaukee County is one of the only places in the nation where property taxes pay for buses, keeping the transit system in competition with other county agencies for tax dollars. But neither local officials nor legislators have reached a consensus on how to replace the levy.

Holloway wants the Legislature to authorize a new local sales tax for transit, as do some other supervisors and aldermen. But the board has yet to rally behind a transit sales tax; Walker opposes any new sales tax; and other supervisors and Barrett say new sales tax revenue should be shared with parks, public safety agencies or both.

Walker, meanwhile, wants the Legislature to shift part of the existing state sales tax on vehicle-related purchases into transportation, a concept vetoed several years ago by Gov. Jim Doyle. Barrett said that’s not politically realistic and pointed out that no lawmaker has even raised the idea during deliberations on the 2007-’09 state budget. Walker retorted that no one has added a local sales tax to the state budget, and he doesn’t think that’s politically realistic, either.

As that debate has continued, the county has raised fares, cut service or both every year since 2000. One result is that transit ridership is dropping here while it’s rising nationwide and in most other major cities. The transit system is expecting 2007 ridership to fall well short of its projected 47.7 million rides, the budget request says.

Walker said cutting bus routes would limit access to jobs and cutting paratransit van service would hit the elderly and disabled. By contrast, he said, “I don’t like fare increases, but they’re the least of my worries.”

Gulotta-Connelly said the bus system had cut other spending, including a successful push in union contract talks to require transit employees and retirees to pay part of their health insurance premiums for the first time.

Alan J. Borsuk of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.