BY LU ANN FRANKLIN, Times of Northwest Indiana Correspondent
MERRILLVILLE | Money and how it's spent remain points of contention between the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority, the Regional Bus Authority and the region's elected officials.
Hammond officials' request for the RBA to take over its transit system has been followed closely by a letter from East Chicago Mayor George Pabey, asking for $925,000 from the RBA to operate its bus system in 2009.
RBA President Dennis Rittenmeyer said in his response to Pabey's request he indicated "that the RBA is not going to give East Chicago $925,000 to run its bus system."
Rittenmeyer said the request seemed excessive based on one year of operations for that transit system. In addition, the mayor's letter "seems to say that in budgeting for the city, there would be money in the budget for 2010, just not for 2009."
A proposal Rittenmeyer floated before the Hammond Common Council in August for taking over city bus service over a three-year period could be offered to East Chicago, Rittenmeyer said.
"The RBA can pick up increasing fiscal responsibilities as the cities decrease their fiscal responsibilities," he said, citing the proposal to take on the cost and operation of municipal buses over a three-to-four year period. However, he added, the municipalities would still need to kick in cash each one of those three years.
"There is a perception that the role of the RBA is to collapse all bus systems and operate them, but there's no money for that," he said.
Part of the problem, Rittenmeyer said, is that the region has "multiple systems that operate independently that are funded by the local tax base." What's needed is a source of funding for a regional bus system in Lake and Porter counties.
Some of the funds used by the RBA are provided in a grant from the RDA. This grant is slated to run out at the end of 2009.
The RDA has a policy of not spending money on day-to-day operations of transit or other systems. Funds are only to be spent on capital projects such as purchasing buses or passenger rail cars.
However, Martinez said, perhaps it is time to revisit that policy and loosen up funding for operations.
"My concern is that those who really need bus transportation in our cities will be hurt," he said. "Perhaps we need a short-term obligation for a short-term fix."
East Chicago Corporate Council Carmen Fernandez said her city of 30,000 experiences high poverty rates and its homeowners cannot pay the high property taxes on their homes.
East Chicago's buses don't charge any fares because of the poverty level, Fernandez. However, charging fares won't raise enough revenue to keep the buses running, she said.
"Even if we charged $1 a ride, which is about the high limit, it would only raise $270,000," Fernandez said.
In addition, she said, the general assembly started the RDA in 2005 by requiring cities to pay $3.5 million a year to the agency.
"If we had that $3.5 million we pay to the RDA we could move ahead and not be in this situation," Fernandez said. " It's my personal belief that we have enough bureaucracy in Northwest Indiana. This forces us to go through another bureaucracy to get money back."