Pierce Transit has a proud history of providing excellent public transportation to the people of Pierce County. This past year, Pierce Transit has been in the news a lot. We have heard both praise and criticism, and we want you to know we’ve listened.
By authority of the state Legislature, Pierce Transit is funded primarily through sales tax revenue. Sales tax revenue is what allows us to put bus service on the street. Sales tax revenue has declined significantly as Pierce County residents have continued to feel the effects of the poor economy over the past several years and have pulled back on spending.
As sales tax revenues declined, we faced a $140 million budget gap. The agency cut $89 million in spending between 2009 and 2011, reduced management by almost a third, raised fares twice and cut benefits to nonrepresented employees. We also asked voters, through Proposition 1, to raise the sales tax by three-tenths of one percent to close the remaining $51 million shortfall.
Voters rejected this proposition in February. The failure of Proposition 1 and the continued impacts of the economic recession required the board of commissioners to authorize a 35 percent service cut to close the budget gap.
What we heard from voters was that we need to be more efficient, reduce management, and focus more on providing service to get people to jobs and social services. We listened.
We’ve are less top-heavy than we were at the start of the recession. From 2008 to today, management has been cut by 31 percent and our administrative staff has been reduced by 27 percent. Our represented staff has been reduced by 18 percent, allowing us to keep more direct services for the public.
The service reductions our customers are experiencing are unavoidably painful. Yet, where possible, we’re preserving connections to job centers, educational facilities, regional transit hubs, social services and lifeline services for our veterans. We’ve retained service for the most people possible, preserving our highest ridership routes.
These cuts in overhead coupled with our new service design are improving our efficiency. Our cost per passenger will be reduced by 44 percent once this program has been fully implemented.
We have clear priorities for our future, aimed at diversifying our revenue, increasing our ridership, providing quality customer service and working to ensure that we are less dependent on sales tax.
We are proud to serve the people of Pierce County. We know the current service cuts hurt, and we’re doing everything possible to streamline our operations and retain as much service as possible. Voters have entrusted Pierce Transit with a finite amount of resources, and we will deliver the best public transit we can with the resources we have.
All of us experience benefits from transit service in our community – reduced congestion, better air quality, access to lifeline services for our most vulnerable citizens, and transportation service in the case of a natural disaster or emergency. We are committed to staying focused on what the public wants us to do – provide reliable transit service that improves our quality of life in Pierce County.
Claudia Thomas, a Lakewood City Council member, is chairwoman of the Pierce Transit board. Lynne Griffith is the Pierce Transit CEO.
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