What you don't seem to understand, and it is obvious by this post, is how transit is funded.
The federal and state use the gas tax to fund transit. With a reduction in fuel being used due to several factors policies demanding better fuel efficiency, alt fuel vehicles, the cost of gas being high enough so folks who do drive conserve trips, and the reluctance of the legislatures to increase fuel taxes [[which is based on a gallon of gas sold instead of the sales tax). As you stated earlier its just impossible these days for many to have a car due to decreases in personal revenues and increases in operating costs. There are a lot fewer revenues to go around. Gov Snyder wants to change how gasoline is funded from being based on a fuel tax to something more akin to a sales tax. He estimates that by doing this he could bring in a billion more and the impact at the pump will hardly be noticed. He also wants to raise the vehicle registration fee because the gas side will not keep up with inflation because of the policies and realities that have lead to decreased fuel usage are not going away.
SMART and DDOT are also funded through local taxes. With SMART it is based on property tax revenues. When property is worth 30 to 50 percent less and no one is investing in new buildings because of the stalled economy, there are sharply less taxes brought in. DDOT gets a chunk of the Detroit general fund. This chunk has dropped from a high of $90 million to somewhere areound $40 million. The general fund is supported by property taxes and income taxes. when you have a quarter million people leave guess what happens to both taxes? When all of your new development is done using tax breaks/subsidies, guess what happens to the amount of taxes generated?
Every time riders are requested to pay more everyone goes crazy like its the end of the world so revenues from the farebox are less now [[accounting for inflation) than ever before.
How do you make substantial improvements in service under these conditions? Really if you have it all figured out, please post it. I'd be interesting in hearing which magic wand I can wave to make this all better?
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