Tax plan could help save bus system

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Columbia City Council members are discussing whether to ask votersfor permission to use property taxes to help operate the strugglingbus system.
The option emerged after the regional transit board voted Monday toplan for reduced bus service next year amid concerns that localgovernments won’t figure out how to keep the system runningpast June.
But Mayor Bob Coble cautioned that chipping in Columbia propertytaxes would require cutting other services and wouldn’tproduce much money — a few hundred thousand dollars for a $12million bus system.
He emphasized that bus riders should anticipate cuts in service.
“To be honest with you, there are very few good options tohave a fully functioning RTA, and we need to look at all of themand see what we can do,” he said.
County Council Chairman Joe McEachern and other county councilmembers have been pressuring Columbia to provide more funding forthe bus system.
Last week, the county voted down a proposed penny-on-the-dollarsales tax proposal that, had it been approved by voters, would havefunded the bus system through 2016 and paid to build roads and bikepaths throughout the county.
But with that proposal dead, and a county vehicle fee set to expirein October, transit officials said they had to “prepare forthe worst.”
Details about the proposed reduced bus schedule were not available,other than the changes would be implemented after June 30.That’s the date the Central Midlands Regional TransitAuthority expects to run out of money from a $16 fee collected onvehicles registered to Richland County residents. A $24 fee ischarged to commercial vehicles.
But the rising price of diesel fuel could mean the bus system runsout of money before next summer — putting more pressure onlocal leaders to come up with a solution.
“Our elected leaders are going to need to make some toughdecisions,” said Tommy Windsor, a Lexington County Councilappointee to the Transit Authority board. “It might not bethe most popular politically, but if they don’t worktogether, there might be a lot of people that get hurt.”
Governments in Lexington County have declined to help fund aregional bus service.
Thirty percent of the transit authority’s $12 million budget,or $3.6 million, comes from the Richland County vehicle fee, whichwill expire Oct. 31.
SCANA contributes $2.47 million a year, or 21 percent of thetransit authority’s budget. But those payments will dry up inOctober 2009.
That leaves the transit authority with about $2.5 million from busfares, and $1 million a year it already gets from Columbia’shydroelectric power plant.
“Our funding is basically sunsetting,” said Pat Smith,mayor of Springdale and chairman of the transit authority’sboard.
Transit authority board members directed staff to come up with aplan to reduce bus service to compensate for the expected fundingshortfall.
But McEachern was upset that the action would make the CountyCouncil appear responsible for cuts in service.
McEachern and Coble — whose governments hold the key to thebus system’s future — worked out a compromise.
The board directed staff to prepare next year’s budget, whichincludes the plans for reduced service. They also created acommittee of city and county officials to look at the future of busfunding.
While the funding is drying up, the costs of running the buses aregoing up. The transit authority buys gas under a state contractthat gives them a discount and exempts them from paying taxes.
But even with the contract, the cost of ultra-low sulfur diesel,the type of fuel the buses use, hit a high of $4.38 a gallon July7. A year ago, the authority was paying $2.24 a gallon.
The price has gone up so much that RTA director Mitzi Javers hashad to amend the budget twice to shift more money to pay for fuel.Monday, the board approved a $200,000 increase to the fuel budget,pushing the total to well over $1.5 million.
Caroline Whitson, the president of Columbia College, led thecitizen task force recommending a sales tax for broadtransportation improvements. She said she’s not giving up.
“If we can somehow form some coalitions and get people tocome up with something to save the bus system,” she said,“we have to do that.”