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THE BLADE

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TARTA’s fare increase is no substitute for more reliable funding and stronger local political leadership on transit

Toledo Area Regional Transit Authority administrators, prudently, will ask the authority’s board to retain bus tokens, at least until a new farebox system starts running next year. The price of the tokens — now 90 cents apiece in a roll of 25 — probably will go up.

Still, social service agencies will continue to have a handy way to help their clients get to jobs and other appointments. TARTA officials initially planned to eliminate tokens, but backed off after they heard much criticism about the plan during a public comment period that started in March.

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Many riders at TARTA’s first public hearing this week on a proposed fare increase — as well as representatives of agencies and coalitions that work with former prisoners and poor, disabled, addicted, mentally ill, and homeless people — also urged TARTA to retain tokens. TARTA’s board should approve extending tokens when it meets next month.

Public hearings this week on a proposed 25-cent base fare increase for TARTA underscored funding problems that can only be fixed with a more reliable source of local funding. Growing interest in improving local mass transit provides a reason for optimism.

More than 50 people showed up for the midday hearing on Tuesday near downtown Toledo. That’s more than twice the number that attended both public hearings in 2006 on the last fare increase, which raised the adult base fare from 85 cents to $1.

This year’s proposed fare hike, to $1.25, would take effect July 6. It is estimated to raise an additional $560,000 a year. Without higher fare revenue, TARTA general manager James Gee said, the authority would need to cut service.

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Questions and comments received by Mr. Gee during the hour-long hearing included demands for a more reliable and adequate local funding source for transit. The enthusiastic showing suggests a growing, grass-roots interest in transit that the region’s political leaders should get behind — because they have failed miserably in getting ahead of this issue.

Mr. Gee said an increase in one of the state’s lowest fares is needed to offset cuts in state and local funding. Among states, Ohio ranks near the bottom for support of mass transit; Toledo is near the bottom among Ohio transit agencies in local support.

Still, several riders pointed out that any fare increase would disproportionately affect riders with little or no income. TARTA could ease that problem, while retaining general fare increases, by continuing to sell tokens at the current price to agencies that work with poor people.

Doing so won’t bust the bus budget: Only 6 percent of TARTA’s riders use tokens. That share would drop even further if TARTA sold tokens only to social service agencies, not directly to the public.

TARTA could take another step to ease the impact of higher fares on the community’s most vulnerable members, as Scott Sylak, director of the Lucas County Mental Health and Recovery Services Board, suggested. TARTA could make people who are in recovery from alcohol and drug addiction, and taking part in a certified treatment program, eligible for the same discounts that people with other disabilities receive.

The base fare for people with disabilities is now 60 cents. Without question, the early stages of recovery from the disease of addiction are disabling.

Even with a planned fare increase, TARTA will continue to struggle to improve service and attract so-called choice riders. The fare hike is no substitute for more reliable funding and stronger political leadership on transit.

First Published May 15, 2015, 4:00 a.m.

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