Gary Public Transportation Corp. is forging ahead with its $6.7 million request of the Northwest Indiana Regional Bus Authority to fund three regional routes for two years that run through two other cities and three suburban communities.
GPTC General Manager Gerald Lampkins presented the proposal to the RBA's service development and oversight committee Tuesday, just a month before GPTC will hold a public hearing on raising fares and making further service cuts to make up for revenue shortfalls.
"Our goal on all of this is February," Lampkins said near the meeting's end. "If we go back and procrastinate on this like we did last time, we run the risk of alienating riders."
The money for the regional routes would come from the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority, which requires all requests for bus funding to come through the RBA.
The RDA in October rejected a GPTC request for $1.8 million to partially fund the routes after months of negotiations on a written merger agreement between the GPTC and the RBA broke down.
RDA Executive Director Bill Hanna on Tuesday said a memorandum of understanding on the merger provided to GPTC in October remains a condition for any future funding.
"Reopening yet another process to have more negotiations would be counterproductive," Hanna said. "The bottom line is it's time to solve this problem on behalf of people who need access to the regional bus system."
For two years, the three regional routes were subsidized by the RDA, which funneled the money to GPTC through the RBA. That funding ended in September. That led to a drastic cutback in service on the three routes, which are the Tri-City Express, the Broadway Express and the U.S. 30 Circulator.
RBA Executive Director Tim Brown drew up a list of questions on the GPTC request, including one that asks if GPTC would commit to signing a memorandum of understanding on the merger adopted by the RBA board in June.
Lampkins said he could answer "no" to that for the GPTC board of directors. But the GPTC funding request leaves the door open on further negotiations over the matter.
It contains wording that GPTC and the RBA "fully commit" to begin negotiations for consolidation and sets up a seven-member committee to do that.
Brown and committee members also had a number of questions on financial information GPTC included with its request.
Committee member Corey Surrett wanted to know why GPTC was asking for about $3.3 million per year to support the regional routes, when previously the RDA granted it $1.6 million per year to run the routes.
Lampkins said that the $1.6 million per year only paid for about 60 percent of the cost of the routes. The current grant request would fund about 90 percent of their cost.
Currently, the routes are entirely paid for by city of Gary taxpayers, fares, and state and federal funds. The three routes carry more than 40 percent of the GPTC system's riders, which in October carried 83,948 riders overall, according to GPTC figures.