RIDERS PROTEST BUS FARE HIKES METRO BOARD DUE TO VOTE THURSDAY.Byline: SUE DOYLE Staff Writer RESEDA -- From Cleveland High to Leimert Park, opponents rallied Monday against proposed fare hikes for Metro buses and trains, hoping to persuade transit officials to reject the plan later this week. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority board is scheduled to vote Thursday on a plan to more than double fares for most riders by 2009 in a bid to help close a $1.8 billion gap. But the Bus Riders Union and other critics say the higher fares will create a financial hardship for minorities, students and others who rely on public transportation. "We feel it will have a negative impact on many of the families we serve at Cleveland High School," Principal Bob Marks said. But Metro spokesman Marc Littman said fares have been kept artificially low for years -- the $20 student pass is even lower than the $22 charged in 1982 -- while the agency's costs have soared for gas, labor and equipment. Virginia Ramirez, a 17-year-old Cleveland senior who depends on the bus, hopes the Metro board will reject the plan. She works in a supermarket floral department and is saving for college while trying to help her family financially. She wonders how she'll pay the higher fares. "If the price of everything goes up, it's harder to save money," said Ramirez. Metro was barred for many years from raising fares because of a 1996 federal consent decree A settlement of a lawsuit or criminal case in which a person or company agrees to take specific actions without admitting fault or guilt for the situation that led to the lawsuit. A consent decree is a settlement that is contained in a court order. that required the transit agency to invest $1.3 billion to improve bus service. In October 2006, a federal judge allowed the decree to expire after ruling that Metro had complied with its provisions. "At this point if we don't raise fares or cut service we will be out of reserves and not able to make payroll in 1 1/2 years," Littman said. Passenger fares make up about 9 percent of Metro's $3-billion-a-year budget and this year netted about $278.5 million for the agency. The largest portion of Metro's budget, about 62 percent, comes from sales tax sales tax, levy on the sale of goods or services, generally calculated as a percentage of the selling price, and sometimes called a purchase tax. It is usually collected in the form of an extra charge by the retailer, who remits the tax to the government. revenue, which last year generated $1.6 billion to the agency. Under the proposals unveiled in March, daily, weekly and monthly passes would increase in cost on July 1 and again on Jan. 1, 2009. Today's $3 daily pass for unlimited rides, for example, would cost $5 this summer and $8 in 2009. Regular monthly passes that cost $52 today would be $75 in July and $120 in 2009. Earlier in the day, leaders from the African-American community called on Metro board members Yvonne Braithwaite Burke Yvonne Braithwaite Burke (born October 5, 1932) is a politician from Los Angeles, California, U.S.. She is the Los Angeles County Supervisor from the 2nd district, a position she has held since 1992. , Bernard Parks and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Antonio Ramon Villaraigosa (born Antonio (Tony) Ramon Villar, Jr. on January 23, 1953) is the mayor of Los Angeles, California. He is the first Latino mayor of Los Angeles since Cristobal Aguilar in 1872. to reject the fare proposal. In a letter to the Metro board dated Monday, Villaraigosa recommended alternatives to the proposed increases and said the board should approve a five-year plan Five-Year Plan, Soviet economic practice of planning to augment agricultural and industrial output by designated quotas for a limited period of usually five years. to addresses the projected operating deficit. He called for an annual 5 percent fare increase to keep pace with rising operating costs operating costs npl → gastos mpl operacionales . Villaraigosa said the board should also aggressively pursue the city's share of state spillover spill·o·ver n. 1. The act or an instance of spilling over. 2. An amount or quantity spilled over. 3. A side effect arising from or as if from an unpredicted source: funds -- a portion of money that comes from sales tax on gasoline and is transferred to the state's public transportation account. The money accumulates when collections from the sales tax on gasoline grow at a faster rate than all other taxable items. In his state budget proposal, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (German pronunciation (IPA): [ˈaɐ̯nɔlt ˈaloɪ̯s ˈʃvaɐ̯ʦənˌʔɛɡɐ] has proposed moving as much as $1.3 billion in spillover money from public transportation to other projects. Metro has counted on about $230 million of the money for transit projects and for operating buses and trains throughout Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. County. "Over the next coming months we will need to address this issue of funding," wrote Villaraigosa in the letter. "Because if we do not, we will continue to see fights over fare hikes, service cuts and which important rail projects should be built next." sue.doyle(at)dailynews.com (818) 713-3746 CAPTION(S): photo, box Photo: At Cleveland High School in Reseda, teacher Fluke fluke, parasitic flatworm of the trematoda class, related to the tapeworm. Instead of the cilia, external sense organs, and epidermis of the free-living flatworms, adult flukes have sucking disks with which they cling to their hosts and an external cuticle that Fluker speaks about the proposed bus fare Noun 1. bus fare - the fare charged for riding a bus or streetcar carfare fare, transportation - the sum charged for riding in a public conveyance hike during a rally Monday. Tina Burch/Staff Photographer Box: Fare hikes SOURCE: Metro Gregg Miller/Staff Artist |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion