Excellent and thoughtful Wasatch Rambler column in this morning's Standard-Examiner, in which Charles Trentelman examines the simmering public transportation problem which the Std-Ex editors last week labeled the"(UTA) Public-transit scuffle".
Trentelman digs right in and allocates blame among and between all entities responsible for this inelegant political log-jam, namely the State Legislature, the Utah Transit Authority, and the Davis and Weber County Commissions. Although Trentelman lays a glove on each of these entities, each in its turn, we particularly appreciated the following Trentelman broadside, mercilessly directed at the august Senators and House Reps on Utah's Capital Hill:
Start with the Legislature.Further down the article, Trentelman does go on to lambaste the UTA and both county councils with equal vigor, as we said; but one thing remains clear after we get through with playing "the blame game," we think:
Last year it felt a need to cut taxes. Why it felt that need is anyone’s guess. There were huge demands for basic government services, teacher salaries, dental care for the poor, roads, mass transit, and more.
Ignoring massive opposition, the Legislature cut taxes.
One of the taxes it cut was the sales tax on some food. Part of that sales tax goes to UTA, which uses the money to pay for things like FrontRunner.
Would cutting UTA’s funds be a problem? The Legislature either didn’t think so or didn’t care. Either way, it said the counties could make up the difference for UTA by raising the sales tax again.
Get that? The Legislature cut taxes to make itself look good, but let someone else clean up the mess. Not exactly a profile in courage.
The UTA has set a January 31 deadline for somebody to get off the dime; and from that time forward, it will likely be "the little people," those who rely daily upon existing public transit, who may bear at least the short-term burden of this intra-agency quarrel, unless somebody involved in this ridiculous public standoff stands down.
And we'll highlight another element of this squabble where we think Trentelman gets it particularly "right": "So there you have them: The three groups we expect to make FrontRunner a success. Thousands of commuters, and every city hoping to revitalize because of mass transit, depend on their foresight, leadership and wisdom."
There are several proposed "solutions" floating about:
The Utah Rattler blog registered its "conservative" take on the issue a couple of days ago, i.e., that the quasi-public UTA should simply raise user fees. That's what real businesses do in the real world, after all; and subsidizing UTA operations with public tax revenue only benefits another special interest group, the Utah Rattler reminds us.
Others, we imagine, would argue the contrary -- that the Davis and Weber County councils should simply "bite the bullet," raise the sales tax a measly 0.05% and continue with UTA rider subsidies. We suppose some would strongly argue that such subsidies confer an over-riding general public benefit, such as urban revitalization, which Trentelman mentions above.
What your blogmeister would like to know is what out gentle readers think about this issue; and it's in that connection that we invite you to chime in and opine here. We'd be particularly interested in hearing alternative solutions to this dilemma, aside from raising more taxes or increasing transit fares. Who knows... perhaps our readers can come up with a proposed solution which will allow all of these warring public agencies to save face.
Hopefully the cat won't get your tongues.
