But the 82,000 rides taken each year allow people without cars to get to work, help those with disabilities get around and connect patients with crucial health care.
“The value of those rides is unmeasurable, because the people that are using our system need our system,” said Brian Horinka, the city’s transit superintendent.
As in many cities — from sprawling metropolitan areas to smaller and rural communities — the financial future of public transit is questionable in Minot, population 48,000. While increasing, ridership remains below pre-pandemic levels. Federal funding and state budgets remain uncertain, while inflation is pinching transit services.
For example, Horinka said he’s looking to buy a new 30-foot heavy-duty bus. He expects it will cost up to $700,000 because of inflation. Just five years ago, a similar model could be had for about $400,000, he said. “We’re in dire straits, from a financial standpoint,” he said.
North Dakota’s four largest cities, including Minot, asked lawmakers for millions in extra grant dollars this year to keep transit buses rolling. The state enacted a new law awarding $2 million in grants — a welcome reprieve, but far less than the $15 million initially requested.
Republican state Rep. Dan Ruby, a sponsor of the legislation, said cities will likely need to increase local funding for bus systems. “I don’t think it’s enough,” he said. “I think it is going to just be somewhat of a stopgap for some of them to be able to function.”
The law also calls for a study to develop a proposed funding formula for fixed-route bus systems. Ruby said he would prefer a permanent funding model that doesn’t require cities to continually rely on legislative grants.
“We also want to make sure that they’re not sitting on funds or running inefficiently just because they have the funding,” he said. “That’s the key to get support from most of the legislators, to show that they really do have a need and there’s no way to find any more cuts in their operations without affecting the people that need the rides.”
Debates Over Funding
It’s indicative of discussions occurring in state capitals across the country as public transit faces existential funding challenges.
Public transit systems in major cities including Chicago, Dallas and San Francisco face the potential of deep service cuts without more funding. But the problems also extend to smaller systems that connect people in rural America and smaller cities.
In Pennsylvania, Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro said the transit financial crisis affects residents in all 67 of the commonwealth’s counties. “Let me just say, we face a dire situation for mass transit agencies all across Pennsylvania, from Pittsburgh to Philly and rural communities in between,” Shapiro said at a news conference in April.
Transit funding has been stuck in a partisan battle in Harrisburg. In November, to stave off cuts, Shapiro ordered the transfer of more than $150 million in federal highway funds to the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, known as SEPTA, which serves the greater Philadelphia area with bus and regional rail lines. He’s also backed legislation to increase transit funding, which has found support in the Democratic-controlled state House but so far has not advanced in the GOP-controlled state Senate.
Late last month, House Republican Leader Jesse Topper proposed partially privatizing the Philadelphia-area transit agency rather than increasing funding, which he said in a statement would “only serve to patch over the problems of a system chronically in crisis.”
“The same old, same old is clearly not working,” he said, according to a report by public radio station WESA.
The transit agency has said it already operates one of the most efficient systems in the nation. On a special website it created to call attention to its $213 million budget deficit, SEPTA said there’s “nothing left to cut from the budget but service.”
The authority has said it may be forced to cut services by 45 percent and raise fares by 20 percent without help from the state.
Democratic state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, who represents a portion of North Philadelphia, said that would be “catastrophic” for the region. “It makes this not only a less appealing place to live for people who are considering moving here,” he said, “but it also makes it difficult to live for folks who call this area home.”
Kenyatta, who dismissed the idea of privatization, said the state has a moral and economic obligation to ensure sustainable funding for public transportation. “We’ve done patches here and there,” he said. “And that patchwork approach is not one that inspires the type of confidence and allows our transit agencies to do the type of long-term planning that they need to do.”
The Pandemic's Blow to Transit
Mass transit saw some of the most immediate impacts of COVID-19 as people worked from home and avoided public spaces.
The federal government provided nearly $70 billion in pandemic aid to transit programs, which saw revenues drop sharply because of reduced fare collections.
But with the rise of remote and hybrid work, ridership remains below pre-pandemic levels even as costs for labor and equipment skyrocket. A recent Bloomberg News analysis estimates the nation’s largest transit systems are facing a $6 billion shortfall — only heightening fears of a so-called death spiral in which a combination of service cuts and fare increases cause further erosion of riders and revenue.
In Oregon, Democratic lawmakers have proposed increasing the state’s dedicated transit payroll tax. Billed as “a starting point,” the plan would increase the tax from 0.1 percent to 0.18 percent — estimated to raise $269 million over each two-year budget cycle.
“That’s appreciated, but it’s nowhere near what it needs to be,” said Brian Vitulli, general manager of the Tillamook County Transportation District in western Oregon. “There could be some service reductions in the near future if we don’t get more funding.”
Aside from rising costs, Vitulli faces major hiring challenges: The district has 19 drivers but could use eight to 10 more. With too few drivers, bus service has been cut to six days a week.
For some riders, the transit services provide a lifeline. After last year’s closure of Tillamook’s only dialysis center, for example, the agency began offering rides to other dialysis clinics well outside its service area.That has driven up costs and tied up drivers, making services such as the on-demand Dial-A-Ride less available for other residents.
“We’re kind of the only option for these dialysis patients,” he said. “And we’re kind of prioritizing those trips rather than somebody who just wants to go to the Elks Club for lunch or something.”
Vitulli also serves on the board of the Oregon Transit Association, which is lobbying instead for a 0.4 percent increase in the transit payroll tax phased in over eight years. The association said the current 0.08 percent proposal could force transit providers across the state to cut services by as much as 25 percent in the next few years as inflation and decreased fare collections push many into deficits.
TriMet, which operates rail, bus and paratransit services across 533 square miles of the Portland region, said it would still need to cut services even if the lawmakers’ proposed 0.08 percent funding increase were approved. The agency faces a deficit of nearly $75 million for the upcoming fiscal year.
Oregon lawmakers are broadly concerned about federal spending cuts, which could turn the state’s modest budget surplus into a gaping deficit, the Oregon Capital Chronicle reported. Nearly a third of the state’s budget comes from federal money.
Democratic state Rep. Susan McLain said budget uncertainty has heightened scrutiny of all state spending this session. She is one of the authors of the state’s transportation proposal, crafted after nearly two years of meetings across the state. Aside from increasing the transit payroll tax, it calls for boosting the gas tax and hiking vehicle registration costs to help pay for road improvements.
McLain, co-chair of the Joint Committee on Transportation, said budget negotiations are ongoing, with aims of having hearings later this month.
While the state wants to do more to ensure everyone can access medical care, schools and jobs, McLain noted that belt-tightening is imperative for all manner of agencies, including transit.
“We’re really trying to dig in and find ways to do more with less,” she said, “but also to make sure that we’ve got sufficient, adequate types of investment in areas that we value.”
This article was published by Stateline. Read the original here.
