The Arizona Republic reports that Mesa, Arizona, lost its state transportation funding and now faces a transportation deficit of $1.3 million.  Mesa will be forced to cut bus and dial a ride services.  Federal law requires cities to provide dial a ride services to disabled people within five miles of fixed bus routes for not more than two times bus fares.  For Mesa, this unfunded federal mandate means that Mesa must pay $33.75 for every dial a ride passenger for which it collects $3 from the passenger.  Mesa’s total federally mandated dial a ride cost is $4 million a year.  I note that the story does not say that Mesa will cut any funding to its share of the cost for the highly favored, lightly used additional money pit known as the light rail.

Related posts:

  1. Arizona, Its Counties & Cities Have Massive Money Problems So Some Idiots Want Governments to Spend Money They Don’t Have to Build Passenger Rail from Wittmann to Queen Creek
  2. Facing $164 Million of Red Ink, Mesa, Arizona Give 1,600 Employees a 5% Pay Raise
  3. Mesa Faces $20 Million Budget Deficit
  4. Arizona Planners Unaware of Massive State & Phoenix Budget Deficits Causing Cities to Reduce Bus Services Plan to Expand Light Rail
  5. Metro Light Rail Cuts Hours, Hikes Waits While Phoenix City Council Flunks Math Test
  6. Broke Phoenix to Pay $14 Million Per 53 Passenger Light Rail Car ($260 Million Total) for Light Rail to Airport
  7. Idiots Planning to Spend $200 Million Government Doesn’t Have to Expand Light Rail in Mesa
  8. Mesa Mayor to Ignore City’s Monetary Problems & Promote Light-rail Extension to Gilbert Road
  9. People Who Like to Spend Money Goverment Doesn’t Have on Economic Money Pits Now Wasting Money to Determine if Light Rail Should Expand to South Phoenix
  10. Mesa Unaware It Is Broke So It Plans to Borrow & Spend Taxpayers Money to Build an Annual Money Losing Sink Hole aka Extension of the Light Rail