There has been little coverage of this, but the long arm of government is coming after a small (for now) slice of your income for mass transit ($0.25 per $100 of income) in Hamilton County. Boone County can’t be far behind. A referendum will be on the Nov. 8 ballot. Vote “no.” Here’s why:
- Look at IndyGo as an example, and tell us when it turned a profit. You can’t, because it hasn’t. Same for Amtrak, a business disaster.
- There is much talk about building for the future, and that’s fine. We vastly prefer a privatized system with real profit-and-loss oversight.
- This isn’t discussed: Mass transit has several disadvantages, including possible threats to personal safety on the ride and in the community, irregularities in scheduling, and the fact that in some areas mass transit could have limited coverage and could be available during limited hours.
- Too, various types of public transit are subject to malfunctioning equipment as well as service disruptions caused by emergencies and even labor strikes.
- Traffic. It is stated that mass transit would take alternate routes. Do those include the routes motorists take today to avoid the jams?
- Government usually is way off base when it comes to ridership, economic impact and other such projections.
- The rate won’t remain at $0.25 per $100 of income. They’ll just raise it “as necessary.”
Research it yourself. It disgusts us whenever government comes after even more of our money. Typically, it has shown itself to be a poor steward of our dollars. (See deficits, surpluses – which means it’s your/our money sitting there – and questionable culpability.) Learn more about the plan at indyconnect.org to make an informed decision. Ours is made.
