{"id":2796,"date":"2008-06-30T12:02:34","date_gmt":"2008-06-30T17:02:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=2796"},"modified":"2008-06-30T12:02:34","modified_gmt":"2008-06-30T17:02:34","slug":"soak-the-customer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=2796","title":{"rendered":"Soak The Customer!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Speed Gibson (writing at <a href=\"http:\/\/speedgibson.powerblogs.com\/posts\/1214665322.shtml\">his blog<\/a> and at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.looktruenorth.com\/limited-government\/local-control\/48-local-control\/3599-will-success-spoil-metro-transit.html\">True North<\/a>) notes the odd conundrum at Metro Transit:.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.looktruenorth.com\/limited-government\/local-control\/48-local-control\/3599-will-success-spoil-metro-transit.html\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.looktruenorth.com\/images\/FreedomDogs\/looktruenorthsmall140.png\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>You&#8217;ve probably heard that transit fares will be rising, probably about 25 cents, probably around October 1st.  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.metrocouncil.org\/news\/2008\/news_610.htm\">A number of public hearings<\/a> are scheduled in July.<\/p>\n<p>Most of us will be paying more for transit July 1, however, when the sales tax goes up 0.25% in Hennepin, Ramsey, Anoka, Dakota, and Washington Counties. Also starting July 1, you&#8217;ll be paying a $20 Transit Improvement Vehicle Excise Tax when you sell a vehicle registered in these Counties.<\/p>\n<p>But that&#8217;s already figured into the projected $15 million shortfall in the fiscal year starting July 1.  <a href=\"http:\/\/speedgibson.powerblogs.com\/posts\/1213937003.shtml\">As I posted earlier<\/a>, that amount is suspiciously similar to the Light Rail subsidy. Increased business for an enterprise with such high fixed costs should more than cover the rising fuel costs.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Of course, it&#8217;s a government program.\u00a0 Basic economic rules don&#8217;t apply.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>So what does Metro Transit do? Raise bus fares, which will reduce ridership by pushing some back into their cars or carpools. And not just this fall, and not just a quarter, mind you. The resolution also would grant authority for another increase of up to fifty cents in 2009.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The second-biggest temptation to the bureaucrat, behind chiseling more money out of the taxpayer?\u00a0 Coming up with a <em>really cool system<\/em> to do the chiseling:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>What else can we do to discourage ridership? Let&#8217;s expand the morning rush hour to start at 5:30 AM, not 6:00 AM, so we can charge 50 cents more for these early birds. Isn&#8217;t the purpose of off-peak fares to encourage off-peak ridership?<\/p>\n<p>Oh, and let&#8217;s make it complicated again, with the return of suburban fare zones to nickel and dime quarter and dollar us further.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The beatings will continue until morale improves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Speed Gibson (writing at his blog and at True North) notes the odd conundrum at Metro Transit:. You&#8217;ve probably heard that transit fares will be rising, probably about 25 cents, probably around October 1st. A number of public hearings are scheduled in July. Most of us will be paying more for transit July 1, however, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-minnesota-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2796\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}