AATA

The Ann Arbor Transit Authority has announced it will no longer consider a fare increase, nor will it reduce bus service, but instead suggests it may ask for a countywide property tax millage to replace some of its lost funding. The proposal surfaced a few months back after the City of Ypsilanti decided to stop funding the bus system in its continuing and somewhat fruitless effort to avoid financial ruin.

In addition to other sources of revenue, AATA relies on funding from the cities it serves to stay in the black. Ypsilanti's share of that is $82,000 in fiscal year 2007 and $88,500 in fiscal year 2008. With Ypsilanti no longer paying, AATA had threatened to cancel routes in the city. That, of course, would have been disasterous.

According to the organization Keep Ypsi Rolling, 292,000 people a year, or 800 each day, board the 3, 4 and 5 routes in Ypsilanti. In my own experience riding the bus here, most of the people (though not all) are riding it not because they want to but because they have no other option. This gut feeling gets stronger as the route I ride inches away from Ann Arbor and closer to Ypsilanti. Cutting bus service in already struggling Ypsi would heavily impact the many poor and elderly people who use the bus to get to work and school, do their shopping, etc.

To its credit, AATA recognized as much and quickly began exploring options that would allow it to, you know, Keep Ypsi Rolling. Then came discussion of a 25-cent fare increase on all routes that begin in Ypsilanti. The outcry continued and so now AATA has dropped even discussion of a fare increase and will instead "cover the shortfall in funding from Ypsilanti with existing revenues and internal cost reductions." I'm glad to see the bus system's finances are good enough that it can cover such a large shortfall with existing revenues and internal cost reductions, though I have to wonder, if streamlining its organization and reducing costs was so easy, why it wasn't done long ago.

Don't get me wrong. The AATA operates an excellent bus service here in auto heaven. The buses are generally clean and on time and the drivers are professional and courteous.

The problem I have is with the property tax suggestion. Property taxes in Washtenaw County are already very high. For example, the median home price in Ann Arbor appears to be right around $241,347. (This information comes from a very scientific analysis I did that basically amounts to googling "Ann Arbor median home price" and clicking on the first relevant site I saw). Applying 2005 tax rates, if the median price is accurate and my math is right, the homeowner of an average home can expect to pay about $5,645 a year, or $470 each month in property taxes. In Ann Arbor, this currently includes about $250 a year, or $20 a month, to fund the AATA.

So here's the question. When the AATA says it wants a county wide millage, does it mean it wants communities not currently served to begin paying and getting service? Or does it want to tax new communities and increase the property taxes on communities (such as Ann Arbor) that are already paying? And if the county wide tax increase becomes a reality, does that mean that Ann Arbor and other cities can pull an Ypsilanti and stop making their annual lump sum payments to support bus services. I mean, if the City of Ypsilanti is either unwilling or unable (or both) to pay for its residents to use the bus, is it fair for AATA to ask the taxpayers in the rest of the county to subsidize Ypsi's bus service through higher property taxes on top of the annual fees our communities have not refused to pay? Just asking.