By Jerry Dowling

Disabled people will be among the hardest hit if the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority (SORTA) jacks up fares, eliminates Sunday bus service or both.

Many people with disabilities rely on Access, a transportation system for people unable to use Metro, the regular bus system. Under a proposed Access fare increase from $1.50 to $2 for a trip within city limits, a disabled person making one round trip five days a week 50 weeks a year would pay more than $1,000 a year. Traveling outside the city would cost $1 more each way.

That's a hefty burden even for someone earning minimum wage, or $10,300 a year. But Tim Vogt, spokesman for the Starfire Council, a nonprofit agency that provides recreational opportunities for the disabled, says 99 percent of the clients he sees make far less. In some workshops, they earn as little as $100 per month, he says.

"They can't help it that they can't afford or make enough money to get to work," Vogt says. "I don't understand why we have to increase the fares on them. That's part of the role of society."

Cincinnati City Councilman John Cranley, who is leading the challenge to SORTA's plan, sees the proposal as outrageous.

"This is truly a measure of social and economic justice," he says.

But $2 or $3 doesn't even begin to cover the full $25 it costs SORTA per one-way Access trip, according to Mike Setzer, SORTA's general manager. Rising fuel costs and health care premiums, declining ridership and flat federal, state and city subsidies have left SORTA $2.6 million in the hole.

'The least worst way'
The city's contribution of .03 percent of the earnings tax proceeds provides roughly half of SORTA's yearly budget of about $75 million. SORTA's 2005 funding request included a proposed fare increase, but council refused. Just months earlier SORTA had restructured and eliminated routes, promising it prevented higher fares.

Cranley is also displeased that the city paid for the study that suggested cutting city routes in favor of park and ride services for suburbanites who already have cars and that SORTA submitted its budget two months late and that it published the proposed rate increases without the city's OK.

Though SORTA claims to have streamlined its administrative efficiency, Cranley says he sees no fewer net numbers in lists of administrative positions or salaries. In fact, Cranley says SORTA handed out $380,000 in merit raises this year. Some of those were promotions and others were raises granted before he froze salaries months ago, Setzer says.

During a Dec. 2 hearing before council's Finance Committee, Setzer said SORTA had eliminated 15 administrative and 35 bus-driving jobs.

After that hearing, council passed Cranley's motion directing SORTA to resubmit a budget without fare increases or service reductions. Cranley figures the city is paying nearly $1 million to subsidize service to Clermont, Butler and Warren counties. Setzer says SORTA is renegotiating contracts with outlying counties for 5 percent increases.

Instead of reworking the budget as council requested, the SORTA board of trustees voted Dec. 12 to cut Sunday bus service as well as services for special events such as Oktoberfest, Riverfest, the Black Family Reunion and Bengals games.

That left a livid Cranley calling Dec. 15 for an audit of SORTA's overhead costs. The city would give SORTA funding for one month in order to finalize the audit and SORTA's own concurrent union contract negotiations.

"SORTA's out there trying to blackmail city council and scare citizens by threatening to cut Sunday service, so we have to be specific," Cranley says. "We have to move with clearer direction."

His motion passed 5-4.

Setzer calls cutting Sunday service "the least worst way to do it. I'm absolutely confident there's not $2.6 million to be taken out of this system, or anything close to it, without cutting service. So we must have a fare increase or we'll be forced to cut some service."

He says he looks forward to having a third party examine the books to clear up any misunderstandings.

Maybe a takeover
Mayor Charlie Luken said he understands Cranley's frustration.

"I think the SORTA board has been almost contemptuous of us on occasion," he said Dec. 15.

His father, former U.S. Rep. Tom Luken, is one of the four city appointees to SORTA's nine-member board. The elder Luken presented council's suggested alternatives to cutting Sunday service. Cranley says the board wasn't interested.

Dana Terrell attended the SORTA board meeting Dec. 12. The Terrells take the bus everywhere: to go grocery shopping, to and from church, to the doctor, to his college classes. The board's dismissive behavior infuriated them.

"When they finally did give (Tom Luken) a chance to speak on some of the cuts, the chair of the board was talking to some guy sitting next to him, the lawyer had his hand up to the side of his face and was staring into space, he wasn't paying any attention, (and) several of the board members had their arms crossed in front of them," Terrell says. "They would not even take one step towards coming to middle ground."

A former business owner, Terrell says he's put together a plan to make SORTA owner-operated, turning ownership of Metro and Access over to its employees.

Councilwoman Laketa Cole suggested another tack: Perhaps Cincinnati, like Memphis, should take over the transportation system. Councilman David Crowley thinks that's unrealistic, but Cranley's isn't ruling it out.

"I think there are a lot of solutions short of that step, but I certainly think that if they continue to be unwilling to compromise with the organization that gives them 50 percent of their funding -- i.e., the city -- we shouldn't be taking any options off the table," Cranley says.

Both of SORTA's plans, raising fares or dropping Sunday service, will hurt disabled people, leaving them more prone to isolation, depression, neglect and abuse, Vogt says.

"We fight hard for our members to have independence," he says. "If you don't have independence, you really don't have any self-respect." ©