By: Diane Benjamin
Let’s play a game. Get a sheet of paper, draw a line down the middle. Label the left side “Great things done by government“, label the right side “Things government did and stuck me with the bill“.
Go – start making your lists.
Just the local issues will produce a long list on the right. It isn’t government’s job to predict the future or form it for you. They aren’t using their money so their plans will fail every time. I do mean EVERY TIME.
Things fail because they aren’t driven by markets, government tries to create the market they want to see. Just like teengers, Americans will refuse to do what they are told to do. We were created a free country and free people. We will refuse to comply. See now why the 2nd Amendment is under attack? Think some people want to FORCE you to comply?
That brings me to the Working Group report: CTTF FINAL Recommendations
The Working Group was formed because meeting after meeting after meeting people NEEDING bus service said they were not being served. They still won’t be after the report. There is one small part that refers to the dependent riders:
There are many references to partnering with other groups, public and private, to increase ridership. Obviously the goal isn’t to serve the transit-reliant.
The document has many references to needing more money. They want fares to increase to $1.25. Does that mean $1.25 for ISU and Heartland students too? CT recently negotiated prices of far less with both until June 30th.
Of course CT needs a downton transfer station. Many millions of dollars to control people is worth the price. All those people who adjust to riding the bus and therefore become dependent are limiting their lives to where the bus goes.
Connect Transit claims they will be insolvent by 2026. Losing $900,000 a month means they are insolvent now. Hello! (Eventually you run out of other people’s money)
In the future the Working Group wants service to be FREE. Socialism anyone? Are the drivers going to work for FREE?
They want the taxpayers of Bloomington and Normal to fork over more money so they can stay in business running empty buses and destroying the streets. The electric buses are heavier and will do an even better job at wrecking curbs and leaving large dents in the roads. Your gas tax will be raised again to fund the repairs.
Budget cuts are really hard, raising taxes to throw more money away on Connect Transit is much easier.
This will be a 2021 election issue. Had enough socialism yet?
Those empty buses going in circles around the city remind me of money being flushed down a drain never to be seen again.
CORIOLIS EFFECT??
Trying to say they have to go really fast to gather a bunch of money before people realize what’s happening?
2026, eh? I can’t wait until they run out of money and this shame of a government agency shuts down. Maybe then, a realistic transportation solution will be developed. I’m not holding my breath. Of course, government agencies and grants are almost always rubber-stamped renewed with little or no regard for their level of (in)effectiveness. So, we’ll have to wait and see on this one. The physical paper/coin in the farebox is literally chump change. I heard it accounts for less than 15% of riders, as most have a pass, typically with a special fare tied to it (e.g. ISU, social services agency, a non-profit organization, etc.) which is already prepaid to CT. It would probably cost more money to reconfigure the technology and reprint marketing materials, website, etc. than they’d get from the slight fare increase. I hope they’ll renegotiate a higher per pass rate with ISU and others with a pass-related contract if the fare is increased. Finally, the suggestion of making rides “free” on public transportation has been making the news recently with a handful of communities trying it out. Perhaps, this was mayors conference material. The Kansas City City Council voted unanimously to make public transportation “free” then realized they needed to develop a plan to come up with the $8 million annually to fund it. Haha! I expect the same irrational and out of order decision making in BN.
There is NOTHING in this “report” that does not surprise me, because it basically says raise taxes,take more taxpayer monies, increase fees . They actually had to form a committee for this ?