Red Line Rebuke

Last week the Capital Metro Board, Austin’s public transit system, approved a $164.7 million operating budget for 2009-2010. $2.6 million of that budget will be taken directly from $26 million of federal stimulus money, dollars targeted for long-term improvements and projects for Austin current and future needs, to post-pone inevitable fare increases. Fare hikes were planned for August 2010, but earlier this year staff members said increases should be moved up to January 2010 drawing much opposition. The solution was to take $2.6 million, 10% of the stimulus money, needed to create a better, more comprehensive metro and rail system, and use “one-time money for continuing expenses,” said Chairwoman Margaret Gomez.

In the opinion section of today's Austin American Statesman one writer shined light on the new budget proposal and the "is-it-ever-going-to-run Red Line rail service. In The delay that makes no sense, the anonymous author was subtly critical of this “short-sighted” approach and also of the Red Line rail service that is almost two years behind opening schedule. His argument was very logical. Why would we want to briefly post-pone fare increases, which are twenty years over due, when the Red Line needs money for development and enhancement for success when it does finally open? He describes it as “a fix that isn’t going to last long enough to deserve the label of ‘temporary’.” That right there nails it on the head. Although this author did not cite any of his facts, he writes with journalistic creditability, including data and quotes, and refrains from being overly opinionated to the point of rudeness. While he does claim that the Red Line delay is “unacceptable”, he does advise patience “until Cap Metro can deliver a system that runs as smoothly and safely as possible”.

When it comes to his disdain for using stimulus money to delay fare increases I agree 100 and 10 percent. Inflation and price hikes for anything is inevitable and Cap Metro has delayed fare increases for 20 years. If we don’t pay the price here, we will just have to pay it else where. I would even go so far as to say that the increases should be substantial enough to cover the twenty years of inflation and then we would have the money to open new rail systems on time. If we had gradual increases in fares over the years, we would have an even better bus system and rail line right now.

Thankfully, the January fare increase will be discussed again later, due to a provision in the budget vote at the urging of Gomez. It seems that the author is hoping he can sway enough folks to “weigh in on the folly” and I hope he can. It would be a shame to see this political budgeting disaster go through.