MTD board approves $32 million budget
CHAMPAIGN — Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District trustees approved unanimously an approximately $32.3 million operating budget for the fiscal year beginning Friday.
Included in the budget is an approximately $1.2 million increase in the transit district's debt service to pay for 13 new hybrid buses it expects to purchase in the next 12 months, MTD Managing Director Bill Volk said.
About two-thirds of the transit district's revenue comes from an anticipated $22.7 million state operating grant. A nearly equal share of property taxes and operating fares provides the rest of the funding.
"We've been fortunate in view of the fact that the state continues to support public transit," Volk said.
Before the MTD board approved the budget, it held a public hearing on the spending plan, but no one offered comments.
Also include in the budget is a half-year's expenses for a chief financial officer position that auditors have recommended the MTD begin. Volk said the district plans to fill the position around Jan. 1, 2012.
Board members also learned Wednesday that the MTD's annual ridership for the year ending today has set a record and will top 10.5 million. The previous record was 10.43 million seven years ago.
More than 7 million of the annual riders are University of Illinois students. Riders with annual passes amount to almost 900,000 rides. UI faculty and staff make up about half a million rides annually.
Finally, Volk said MTD officials have not heard from representatives of the Champaign Southwest Mass Transit District board. The latter board voted on June 9 to request a meeting with the MTD after the Illinois Supreme Court declined to consider an appeal of a local court decision that found that the two mass transit districts could operate simultaneously.
Representatives of the Champaign Southwest district, which was formed in 2006 but has never offered any bus service, said earlier this month that they wanted to discuss "a possible intergovernmental agreement."
$3.05 a ride seems like a pretty good deal. Let's assume you purchase a modest, $20,000 car, keep it for 10 years, pay $500/year in insurance, and drive 12,000/year at 25 mpg with $3.00/gallon gas. That comes out to about $10.80/day to own and operate a fairly typical car - comparable to the cost few rides on MTD. Of course the MTD riders come out way ahead b/c the fares are much less that the total cost. Compared to many other potential uses of my tax dollars I would say this is a pretty good thing since it reduces congestion, results in fewer emissions, and provides transportation to people who can't afford/don't want to keep a car and those who are unable to drive (those with disabilities/medical conditions, the elderly), among other benefits.
It is incredibly easy to skew the math a different way.
I doubt if a single rider goes 12,000 miles/year on the MTD. It is 10 miles from one corner of Champaign to the far corner of Urbana (Stone Creek Golf Course to St. Thomas More School). If a person did that roundtrip everyday of the year, they would travel 7300 miles. Of course they don't have the ability to travel every day of the year on MTD.
Using 7300 miles, and taking into account that a new $20,000 car depreciates to about $5000 in 10 years, and keeping the rest of your math the same, the car would cost $7.87 per day.
A person taking a round trip everyday MTD costs $6.10 per day (to the taxpayers+students assessed MTD fees+riders). If time is money, the MTD is even more expensive. Using the Stone Creek to St. Thomas More example, it takes 1 hour more to complete the trip across town using the bus system than it does by car (according to Google Maps). Doing that round trip takes 2 extra hours per day. Assuming a person's time is worth the minimum wage, MTD would cost $22.60 per day!
If you consider how much we've collectively paid for wars in the Middle East, subsidies to auto manufacturers and oil companies, and the health costs from auto pollution, and the carbon dioxide burned that we'll have to deal with (eventually), and money paid to auto insurance companies, parking fees, etc., is $3 per ride such a bad deal?
Humm. So 7.5 million of the 10 million are U of I students and staff. So when the students aren't here over the summer, who's riding all those buses driving around? If you have 8 passengers on a 50 person bus, it's not very "green" now, is it. Assuming that most of the UI staff rides are in the morning and in the evening going to and from work, It must be pretty slim during most of the day. With 75% of the users U of I related, I assume they are picking up 75% of the operating expenses, right?
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