Lopsided Service

Lots of exciting news coming out of Marion County on the tax-front this morning.

In short, libraries and colleges are spending way too much money on useless administrators, and then they wonder where there money went. Oh, and IndyGo broke an axel wheel. And colleges are full of “mindless cheerleaders”.

In unanimously approving its $37.9 million budget Monday, the Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library board of trustees also put in motion a shortfall appeal that — if approved — will increase some property taxes.

IndyGo, another agency dependent on property taxes, also adopted a 2011 budget Monday, and it, too, will pursue a shortfall appeal as expected.

If approved by the City-County Council, the appeals would bring in $1.8 million for the library and $1.5 million for IndyGo. But for most homeowners, the increase combined would be only a couple of bucks.

I know it’s only a couple of bucks, but these problems aren’t going away and it defeats the purpose of a cap if you can just walk back to the council and say, “More please!”. They’re already talking about doing it again next year, just because they can. I was at the Irvington Library yesterday and it was mostly kids talking in circles and adults looking at Facebook and YouTube. Abdul over at RTV6 noticed the same thing. That can happen at a Starbucks. Libraries need to be rethinking their purpose in the 21st century. And why did they cut hours and services BEFORE looking at the problem they knew they had…

With one in four library employees in management positions, Torres called for eliminating high-paying, duplicate jobs to avoid reducing the library’s customer services.

“There is a need for discussion,” he said. “It’s a mess.”

I see no need for discussion. You’re top-heavy. Cut it out.

And, in further proof why this man is my hero, Gov. Daniels told Indiana’s public universities, namely IU and Purdue, they were acting like “mindless cheerleaders“:

Gov. Mitch Daniels told a large group of college trustees Monday that the days of top-heavy campuses — where administrators get the biggest slice of the budget pie — must come to an end.

…

“You are not there to be a mindless cheerleader,” the governor said. “Administrative costs are rising rapidly, and that is a lopsided way to deliver resources.”

The study blamed the administrative bloat on subsidies from federal and state governments and suggested that reducing subsidies would force schools to operate more efficiently.

“The role of trustee has never been so critical as it is today,” Daniels said. “But I don’t want to see you at the Statehouse asking for more money.

“Please stay back at the school and find ways to be more efficient with those dollars.”

Again, like most things in life, this is not that hard. Any sane organization or company could fix these problems in an afternoon.

IndyGo Resembles a Bus Crash Scene

This IndyGo dealio is really like watching a bus collide with another bus:

They showed that routes the agency plans to cut — the 11, 55 and 87 — have among the lowest ridership of all 29 routes.

They explained that the door-to-door paratransit service, known as Open Door, is far more expensive to operate than fixed-route service — $35 per passenger versus about $4.

Well. There’s yer problem, son. IndyGo’s average rider fare is $1.75. They want to raise it $2. That means they’re, uh, still $2 short. If it costs $4 per passenger to operate the system, I’d be charging $4 a rider!

Assuming a person were to drive from one end of Marion County to Downtown, that’d be about 11 miles. The average cost-per-mile to include wear-and-tear, gas, oil, insurance, etc. is 50 cents a mile. That’s $5.50, or $11.00 round-trip by car. A bus fare would be $8, round-trip at the full cost to the rider, which is still a net savings of $3 for the rider to take the bus.

Heck, they could raise the fares to $3 a trip and there’d be even more savings for the rider vs. driving a car and they’d close their budget cap overnight. Or, you could subsidize some riders and not others. They’re a number of riders that take the bus because they can’t drive — maybe they have DUIs, seizures, want to be eco-friendly or are just plain afraid to get in a car. They may likely be perfectly capable of affording a car, but can’t or just don’t want to drive one. In which case, charge them $4 a ride and the poor folks can get a $3 fare.

Somehow, though, that was lost among those at the public hearing:

“It took me an hour and a half to get from my house to Washington (Street to catch the bus),” said regular IndyGo rider Nora Wright, her voice shaking with anger. “I don’t think that’s right.”

…

Then came the personal attacks and accusations.

“Thank you for lying to us all!” one person yelled toward a table where IndyGo employees were seated.

Another man, shouting at Terry, demanded to know: “What kind of car do you drive?” (Terry said he hasn’t owned a car since the 1990s.)

She’s right — that’s not right. IndyGo needs to beef up and attract more riders. They do that by improving service and adding busses to make it more convenient and faster. A 10 minute car trip takes 40 minutes by bus, if you’re lucky enough to live and work close to the stops. And you fix these problems by generating revenue. They can’t look to the government for funding — there isn’t any. Alas, raise the fares on a tiered system to provide better service, get people where they need to go and all the while helping those less fortunate.