EDITORIAL- Port Authority in money trouble again

Get on the bus while you still can, because Port Authority, like Florida, may not be here… Get on the bus while you still can, because Port Authority, like Florida, may not be here for long.

In an annual ritual more predictable than Oktoberfest, Port Authority of Allegheny County announced that it’s on the brink of bankruptcy, with a projected debt for fiscal year in 2004-5 of $30 million.

To counter this, it has proposed raising fares by 75 cents, slashing evening and weekend service, cutting routes, and laying off 20 percent of its employees — because Pittsburgh needs more unemployed people who can’t get anywhere. That’ll jumpstart the economy for sure.

No public transportation system can be completely self-sustaining; they require government funding. Port Authority needs a serious shot in the arm if it’s going to continue running buses and the T, Pittsburgh’s mini-subway system. And although the T is clean and empty, if any service should be cut during Port Authority’s belt-tightening, it’s the four-stop little train that couldn’t.

The money has to come from the state or the federal government, since Pittsburgh is floundering in debt, and Pittsburghers, already seeing their taxes raised and their services cut because of the city’s budget crisis, certainly don’t have it.

We at Pitt are lucky. Although Port Authority’s budget crisis has meant that Pitt shelled out more money — $166,000 more this year — so that Pitt IDs double as bus passes, but didn’t raise our security, safety and transportation fee. The math works out to 52 cents a ride, significantly less than what Joe Pittsburgh pays.

But Pitt, as a part of the Pittsburgh community, has an obligation to help out when services important to students are in trouble.

We’ll only say this once: Charge students more money. Hike those transportation fees. Forty more dollars per student in the fees category isn’t going to break anyone’s bank, compared with the thousands we’re already shelling out for tuition. The fee is currently $150. Another $40 per student, which then goes to Port Authority, guaranteeing that it’ll be slightly out of the red, might save much-used routes.

Students have a vested interest in bus service. We need the 500, 61C, 28X and 84B to get around. Cars are a luxury item in the city; besides, with Oakland parking so miasmic and the parking tax so high, their upkeep can be exorbitant. Buses are cheap in this age of bloated gas prices, and even when you’re drunk and can’t drive, it doesn’t take much coordination to flash a Pitt ID.

Last year, Port Authority’s services were saved because of a large grassroots movement, protests and appeals to Harrisburg, resulting in last-minute money from the state.

Looks like we’re in for another party this year. As Chief Executive Officer Paul Skoutelas told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “We dodged the bullet last year, but we’re back in the soup.” Indeed.