Allen,
LRT construction costs are irrelevant. A strong majority of the construction cost for LRT was federal money. The state and local portions nearly all came from bonding dollars, and those can NEVER be used to operate the system - true for any project funded by bonding dollars, not just transit.
Here's the full quote from today's Pioneer Press:
[MetroTransit's] Lamb, [Transit for Livable Communities'] Thoman and [the Pawlenty appointee-controlled] Metropolitan Council members blamed the Gov. Jesse Ventura-initiated switch from financing the bus system through the relatively stable property tax to the more volatile motor vehicle sales tax. That tax is projected to bring in nearly $30 million less in the next two years than originally expected, or about half of the hole the council is trying to plug.
However, David Strom, president of the conservative Taxpayers League, blames the Hiawatha light-rail line for the budget problems and said it is time to consider rethinking the entire idea of mass transit.
So, a transit advocacy group, transit official, and Pawlenty appointees all agree it was not about Hiawatha, but past changes in the way transit was funded. The ever-dogmatic David Strom predictably blames it on LRT, but every time he is contradicted by the Pawlenty administration and agency heads, he marginalizes himself and reduces his credibility still further.
Bob Spaulding Saint Paul
On Mar 15, 2005, at 2:12 PM, Allen wrote:
Does LRT impact other transit funding? It depends on the twist that one wants to put on it. Afterall, state and local governemnts just spent how much to build LRT? $325 million? Seems like that's a for years of $60m shortfalls and then some. That aside, I suspect both Strom and Lamb are playing with numbers for their own advantage. Off the top of my head, I thought I saw figures that it would cost something like $11m a year to operate LRT. However, that was pure operating costs with estimates that ridership revenues would cover $7m-$8m of that. But that's just off the top of my head.
Allen Graetz MPLStown
Scott Dier wrote:
The Metropolitan Council, controlled by Pawlenty appointees, is
proposing and anticipating YET ANOTHER cut to transit funding in the
Twin Cities metro area. I believe this would be the fourth cut in five
years.
The worst part is when we've got anti-tax groups arguing with met council
saying that light rail is taking all the bus funds -- met council
themselves have said that its simply not the case.
---
"It is so remarkably expensive that they wind up cannibalizing the rest of
the system, so even if light-rail ridership is up, you have a net
decline,'' Strom said, adding that subtracting the $11 million going to
light rail would make a substantial impact on the $60 million deficit.
Lamb said light rail receives its funding from the general fund and is responsible for less than $1 million of the shortfall. ---
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