The Utah Transit Authority should back away from a "callous" plan to bump up bus fares and decrease service for disabled passengers.
That's the stiff-lipped opposition expected today from the Salt Lake County Council as UTA contemplates a budget-mending measure that would boost paratransit's $2.50 one-way fares to $4 and stop service more than three-quarters of a mile from bus lines and rail stations.
"It is imperative that we keep in mind our responsibility to maintain services and to protect and assist those in our community who most depend on us," reads a draft letter from the council to UTA. "That's what public institutions do."
Yet UTA's plan fails to show an understanding of that purpose, the letter charges, and "lacks any sensitivity" of the needs of a population that otherwise may not have transportation.
UTA spokeswoman Carrie Bohnsack-Ware did not comment on the letter's specific criticisms, noting the council had not yet approved the text.
"We will take whatever they give us into consideration," she said.
Bohnsack-Ware defended the paratransit proposal as an outgrowth of UTA's larger financial predicament, caused by a recession that left sales tax revenues $18 million lower than expected in 2008. For years, UTA says, it has provided paratransit services amounting to $3.5 million more than federal law requires.
Now, the agency has to cut. "Our backs are up against the wall," Bohnsack-Ware said. "We are absolutely strapped. We can't continue on like this."
But Democratic County Councilman Jim Bradley, who wrote the council letter, argues that UTA hasn't looked hard enough for a solution that holds fares and routes for paratransit customers harmless.
"You don't balance your budget," he said in an interview, "on the backs of the people who have no other alternatives and who are the most needy of these services."
Bradley urges UTA instead to push for a higher federal reimbursement of paratransit trips. The state now requests $2 per trip, but could collect up to $15 a ride.
UTA has tried for several years to tap those funds, Bohnsack-Ware insists. But "we can't do it ourselves. We are trying to work with our partners in the state to do all we can to get the full benefits of federal funds."
Within the Utah Division of Services for People with Disabilities, Program Administrator Chuck Bruder says his agency hasn't shirked in capturing federal funds. While he had no specific information about the federal-reimbursement rate for paratransit trips, he said, "we pursue every penny we can through the federal government."
The County Council's expected stand against the paratransit proposal would add a powerful political voice to that of other opponents, including the Utah Disability Law Center, which say it would strain the pocketbooks of those who can least afford it.
"There is a difference between what is legally right and what is morally right," said Alison Smith, an advocate for the law center. "Although [UTA] is legally within its means, is it morally right to do to a small select population?"
GOP County Councilman Jeff Allen said: "It is beholden on a good and honorable society to ensure that everyone has an equal right to independence. Paratransit provides that."
