UTA has announced that it plans to increase its base fare next year, from $2.50 to $3. Obviously, higher fares will punish Utahns who have no choice but to ride transit, and drive away those who have other options. But if you ever pay sales tax, you should know that the fare increase means a worse deal for you, too. Some simple math using UTA’s own projections shows that taxpayers will pay more per UTA rider if the fare increases.
By UTA’s numbers, the fare hike will reduce ridership by around 7%. That means 2.7 million trips per year will instead happen in cars or not at all. That’s already appalling while Utahns struggle with high gas prices, congested roads and polluted air.
Sure, UTA will bring in more money from the higher fares, about $5.2 million per year. But the vast majority of UTA’s revenue comes from taxpayers, not fares. So the extra fare revenue would be a rounding error in its operating budget — around 1% of the total. It’s hard to imagine any serious service improvements coming from that.
So the revenue impact of a fare increase is negligible, and the harm to ridership is substantial. When you put those numbers together, the idiocy of this fare hike becomes clear. With a $3 fare, not only will struggling transit riders be paying more per ride, but taxpayers will pay more too: the subsidy per rider will increase by about 58 cents. Everybody loses. If UTA is serious about moving the most people per taxpayer dollar, it should cut fares, not raise them.
UTA’s leaders either haven’t done this math, or they’re choosing a charade of fiscal responsibility above their mission to transport people efficiently. Either way, they should be ashamed.
Thomas King, Salt Lake City