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June 15, 2005

Madison Metro budget woes

Madison Metro faces a budget shortfall. The Transit and Parking Commission held a meeting Tuesday night and most public input was against raising fares. The discussion focused mainly on fare increases and potential ad revenue.

PD members Ron Richardson and Lisa Subeck addressed important social justice issues surrounding public transportation. Highlights from the meeting, which was covered by the Capital Times, are below.

"We don't panic in these situations," Cieslewicz told the Transit and Parking Commission Tuesday night. "It's like being tossed in the deep end of the pool. You figure out how to swim."

Every member of the public who addressed the committee was opposed to raising fares, which Metro management and Cieslewicz see as a necessary way to help balance the department's budget...

Lisa Subeck, who works with homeless women at the YWCA, told the commission that boosting the base fare would further diminish the ability of her clients to take public transportation.

"My clients use the cash fare," she said, adding that it was a misconception that the poor and homeless who ride the bus do so for free. When asked by a commissioner how they came up with the fares, she replied: "Honestly? A lot of it is panhandling."

Ron Richardson, a Madison resident who lives on the near-east side, said the fare structure is "a social justice issue" that stands to become more inequitable under the proposed increases. He said he saw a familiar pattern: When a government agency gets into budgetary trouble, it "takes services or money from those who can least afford it."

Richardson challenged the city to instead decrease rates for all, and "perhaps something wonderful would happen," as those who pay cash fares might, for example, fill buses during the off hours.

Posted by prodane at June 15, 2005 07:10 PM