By: Diane Benjamin
Connect Transit held a meeting on August 25th: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EbHKo7ekQqGztDU9fvqRgbALV64ZfNI0/view
This is how their year ended on June 30, 2020. (PDF page 8) The actual loss was slightly below the 12,000,000 budgeted:
See PDF page 15:
The budgeted loss for this year is 12,825,000. Connect is well on the way to meeting that goal – this was the loss from July 2020:
Celebrate now, starting the year with an over $1 million loss on one month!
PDF page 16 – every ride cost $7.48 – up from $5.06 last July.
PDF page 17 – every Mobility ride cost $62.07 – up from $32.40 last year
PDF page 21 – riders in July 2020 numbered 117,844 – down from 153,754 last July
PDF page 22 – Mobility riders were 4,076 – down from 7,078 last July
Now for the comedy:
Connect Transit had an ISU professor do an economic impact study! Think back to the ridiculous economic impact numbers the Coliseum claimed: https://blnnews.com/2014/06/24/coliseums-economic-impact-cough-cough/
This statement is on PDF page 33:
In sum, each of the $8 million spent by Connect Transit and $17 million spent by its employed commuters generates $45 million in economic activity in the McLean County economy; this is an impact of $5 for every $1 spent by Connect Transit.
Of course the money stolen from taxpayers so Bloomington and Normal can toss money to Connect isn’t included in the impact. More not included: What the State and Feds toss in is also money stolen from you.
You are paying higher local sales taxes which means you have less money to generate economic activity, therefore Connect Transit has a NEGATIVE impact on you.
The economic impact doesn’t include destruction of streets and curbs or time wasted behind a parked huge empty bus. It doesn’t include the cost of fixing sidewalks and building shelters. It also doesn’t take into account that citizens see the redistribution of their wealth as an absurd exercise because it doesn’t need to cost more than $12,000,000 a year to transport people. The next sharp stick in the eye of every taxpayer is a downtown transfer station the elites think will generate more economic activity. That would be the same people who thought the Coliseum and the BCPA would make downtown prosperous.
PDF page 50: An agreement with Heartland lets their student ride unlimited for $20 a month. The suspension of fares for everyone else was continued until October. When fares are charged again everyone should be able to ride for $20 unlimited!
A revised Employee Handbook is presented starting on PDF page 55. I’m already outraged enough (if you can’t tell). You can read it yourself, I refuse.
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How many roads could be fixed for 12 million dollars?
Another government boondoggle. If there was a way to make a profit doing mass transit, private industry would do it.
The only busses than are ever full are the redbird express bus and the private party busses that take college students downtown.
Imagine that…a successful private-sector solution. Who would have thought?
Haha! Economic development? Give me a break! Government doesn’t create economic development; government can’t make/do anything without first taking money from productive areas of the economy i.e. businesses and people that earn money by providing goods and services that folks want, need, and desire. Public transportation is expensive to build and support and hasn’t innovated in nearly a century. Connect Transit exists to stroke the egos of the “green” ideologues, and provide safe jobs for those it employs and their crony vendors.
Sounds like they all went to the AOC school of economics.
As long as koos, Renner and Connect lover Boyd are in office CT will not serve those who need public transit the most. Busses will never be an economic engine in a community as small and spread out as ours. Those with disposable income won’t spend 45 min to commute via CT when they could drive themselves or uber it in 15 min?