doodledee

No shocker here, there's yet another transit funding crisis going on. (Paging David Byrne, please pick-up a Same As It Ever Was courtesy phone.) This time around we find Metro Transit $60MM in the red and threatening fare increases and service cuts. When TPaw was asked about the shortfall, he basically said that the Met Council had made their own bed by relying on revenue from the auto sales tax and that now that people are buying fewer cars the bus company should just learn to manage through low spots. I'm not sure if he was implying that the Met Council should have saved more during the 'fat' years or if they should sue big tobacco and get their own rainy day fund to play around with. Or maybe he was saying they should put slot machines on every bus? Either way, it was awesomely weird.

I love this story because a) in reality, stupid expensive gas prices and even stupider expensive employee health insurance costs make up a huge portion of the budget problem and b) when TPaw runs out of money he can just run a deficit so maybe he should just stuff a sock in it when it comes to the "fiscal responsibility" lecture. (PS: he's not running for president. At this moment.)

In the interest of accuracy I will point out that Brian McClung, TPaw's spokesman, did acknowledge the fuel and heath insurance issue in his statement, wisely electing to not blame the public for not buying enough cars. Kudos to him on that at least.

Oh, and the best part is obviously how the transit bigshot at the Met Council is named Nacho Diaz.

Metro Transit fare hikes, service cuts being proposed [tc]
Transit fare hikes, service cuts on tap? [strib]