If you are planning on corresponding or phoning City Council members, or are
planning to testify in City Council this evening about the METRO/SORTA proposed fare increases and service cuts, a few thoughts that you may find useful.
1. The proposed ACCESS fare increases of $1.50 to $3.50 in zone 1 (a 133% increase) and $2.00 to $5.35 in zone 2 (a 167.5%) is clearly wildly disproportionate in comparison to the general bus fare increase of $1.50 to $1.75 (16.66%). This clearly punishes people who are most severely limited in transportation options, most challenged in terms of mobility, and often economic means. Why they are being targeted is unclear, but they clearly have been. I am discussing with Ohio Legal Rights Service the option of working with them and the U. S. Department of Justice to bring a disability discrimination action against SORTA and the City if this proceeds. Pointing out the vast inequity, and likely illegality, of this under disability discrimination la is an excellent "talking point" and one that I know some of you are already pursuing.
2. SORTA has presented City Council with an ultimatum: either pass our proposed 12% service reduction and proposed fare increases in three days of public deliberation or we will implement more draconian 20% cuts November 20 (taking effect December 27). Council is buckling to this demand. Council has the power to be in control but is buckling to SORTA/METRO so far. City Council controls the purse strings for the tax support to SORTA/METRO and contract with SORTA/METRO to be our public transit system. They could respond to SORTA/METRO that if they implement this 20% cut or fail to allow appropriate public discussion of this issue, threatening them (and all of us) with even greater service reductions, they will cancel their contract (with the contract specified 6 month transition period) and then reorganize SORTA to create a regional board and develop a new regional funding mechanism that would truly serve our community (a process presented to Council years ago By TRAN, the Transportation Regional Action Network, and John Cranley in 2005). They have no reason to acquiesce to SORTA/METRO's ultimatum and in doing so are surrendering leadership. SORTA./METRO has created this crisis timeline and is now exploiting City Council with it. Why is City Council afraid to make this decision, so potentially harmful to Cincinnati's and the region's citizens and economy, through a usual time line rather than "fast-tracking it" minimizing public input into the process?
3. METRO/SORTA has had numerous fare increases over the past several years. In each of these cases they have proposed them projecting the increased revenue the fare increases would generate. In each case Council has asked them if they have evaluated the effects of the resulting reduced ridership on revenue generation. They have always talked of using and accepted model to take that into account. We have always testified that these increases will decrease ridership and not increase revenue. In METRO/SORTA's rationale for these increases they have recounted that their revenue has been flat for the past five years until the last year when it has dropped (in the aftermath of the last fare increase a year ago). After each of the successive increases they have come back to City Council telling them that they have in fact had reduced ridership and thus lost revenue, necessitating yet another fare increase. Now they are going further to reduce services dramatically which too is bound to have a chilling effect on ridership and fare revenue generation. To enact this measure is to do the same failed strategy that has demonstrated time and time again that it reducers ridership and erodes revenue, not increases revenue. What is the old axiom that, insanity is the act of doing the same thing over and over and expecting a new result?
Please contact our City Council and ask them these questions and plan to be in City Council 5:20 PM this evening to fill out a witness slip, and plan to protest these service reduction and fare increases at tonight's 6:00 PM City Council session.
Tom Eamoe, Executive Director
The Arc
The Ohio Developmental Disabilities Council Southwest Ohio Center for Public Policy
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