Trains, Buses and Black Holes

They call it mass transit. As in mass transit of our money to the massive black hole called government. We are seeing a disaster in the making. I am referring to the Denton County Transit Authority (DCTA) and the financial mess they are making. In May we were told the County had too much money sitting around so they loaned it to DART.

DART has since told us they were going to have massive layoffs and may have to reconsider when and if they pursue toy trains. In their May/June newsletter DCTA has a piece titled “Ridership Continues to Rise, Despite Industry Trends”. Now we read the county sure wishes more stops were added but no one else can afford to raise the tax rate that is already maxed out.

Anytime a tax must be used to fund a program, failure is close behind. Why do we continue to allow programs be built with no hope of paying for itself? Look at the entities that rely on tax dollars today. Every one of them is crying for more money because their revenue source, taxes, is down. The only thing left is to raise fees and fares that reduce usage that means more money lost. The cycle continues the all too familiar course.

Since 2007, DCTA average annual cost is more than $10 million. Although they say 2 million people ride DCTA, they really mean someone steps on the bus 2 million times. Of those more than 30% are UNT students. Something doesn’t make sense.