Love ’em or hate ’em, we are once again indebted to our
Independence Day Rally guests for the valuable transport lessons
that they gave to us. But do the Council of Government’s Directors
get it? Our 120,000 guests, like other folks, average six trips per
day.
Editor,
Love ’em or hate ’em, we are once again indebted to our Independence Day Rally guests for the valuable transport lessons that they gave to us. But do the Council of Government’s Directors get it? Our 120,000 guests, like other folks, average six trips per day. So, if they all took County Transit for one month, that would give COG’s County Transit 216 million monthly “ridership,” or 2.592 billion annual “ridership.” At COG’s current operating loss rate, COG’s operator M.V. Transportation, Inc., would receive taxpayer subsidies of 216 million x $21,722, equalling $4,691,952,000,000 per month, or 12 times that amount for the annual taxpayers subsidy.
Since San Benito County gets back only 11 cents of each dollar of tax we send to Sacramento, to get back the money to pay the operator for County Transit riders’ rides for one month we would have to send 8.9 x $4,691,952,000,000 = $41,758,372,000,000.00. Multiply that number by 12 for the annual operating subsidy. That is just for operating expenses. Since COG’s financial reports exclude capital and fixed costs, you must add 189 percent of the equipment and facilities purchase prices to get the total expenditure of tax dollars.
Transit advocates call this “success.” I call it berserk government, sure to ruin America before the socialists‚ Marxist-Leninist “utopia” is ever found.
Will COG’s Directors continue to take us places that we don’t want to go? Will they stubbornly cling to their policy of Transit First? Now before they spend $1 on highway safety improvements they must find that all “unmet needs” of transit riders have been satisfied.
If they won’t alter course, we should start preparing SBC’s Chapter 9 bankruptcy petition and schedules now, including termination of public services, e.g., education, law enforcement, fire fighting, etc., and elimination of all pension obligations for retired government employees.
If we privatized public transit, we could avoid this trainwreck. But COG’s Directors insist that they are right, so they blindly plunge ahead.
Will they learn the lesson before it’s too late? Caveat Viator!
Joe Thompson, Tres Pinos
