MONTEREY COUNTY, Calif- Public transportation is supposed to be the future, but Monterey Salinas Transit is facing decreased ridership. In tough economic times, should taxpayers keep investing in MST?
A letter to the Center for Investigative Action claims Monterey County has a "Champagne transit system when we cannot afford beer." The Center for Investigative Action took the letter to local transit leaders to get answers.
"You often hear comments, why are there so many empty buses on the road.", said MST General Manager Carl Sedoryk. It's what the letter addressed to the CIA team at Central Coast News references, but Sedoryk says the empty buses are a misperception. "Peak ridership is between 5:30 and 7:30 in the morning when people aren't on the road", he added.
Sedoryk says MST averages about 12 thousand passengers a day. Each passenger pays a fare which adds up to about 28 percent of what it costs to run MST. "The fact we run at a deficit is just the way the program has been built and designed by the federal and state government", Sedoryk said.
State and Federal funds pick up the rest of the tab. It's particularly the case in Monterey County. "We're one of a few counties in the state of California that doesn't have a dedicated source of revenue for public transit", Sedoryk added. He says other places often have a local tax to help pay for transit. MST breaks even by getting funds from state sales taxes and federal gasoline taxes.
The millions of dollars in funds are funneled through the Transportation Agency of Monterey County. Supervision Simon Salinas is the vice chair of TAMC. In addition to passing funds to MST, TAMC also oversees road projects. "We've got roads that are crumbling. We have a lot of need. If we had more money we could do a lot more to improve roads and infrastructure.", said Salinas.
However, Salinas says TAMC's hands are tied and they can't funnel funds to other needs. "We wish we could have the flexibility to move those funds, but we cant. That's what they are earmarked for."
Just last year, Salinas says the county had to hand over a million dollars to MST it had wanted to use for roadwork because the laws surrounding money for public transportation are not flexible. "If we wanted to change it. It's not us that can do it. It has to come from Sacramento or Washington to provide the flexibility.", Salinas added.
If MST didn't apply for the funds local money would end up going to another community.
MST has applied for more money. It could receive up to 30 million dollars to build a new 24.3 acre operations and maintenance facility. Sedoryk says the funding hasn't been secured because of tough economic times. However he claims it will actually eliminate some of the empty buses taxpayers often see on the road right now.
The current facility is over 3 decades old and is designed to only hold 50 buses. MST currently operates 130 buses. "We spend a million dollars a year renting facilities, shuttling empty buses back and forth between Salinas and Monterey into service. Sedoryk stresses MST is not a private business, but a public service that happens to charge a fare unlike other public services. "Is it worth it to be subsidized? You would need to ask the same thing of public education, roads, or any other public service. While general ridership on MST has been down for the past 5 years, Sedoryk says it's directly related to the downturn in the economy because many riders use the service for work. Both Sedoryk and Salinas point to MST as something much of the elderly and working poor can't do without regardless of how the economy is doing.
Sedoryk says MST is considered one of the most efficient public transit services for the coverage area and gets incentive money to do so.
