Funding Limits Determine What Transit Services Are Offered

Contrary to a Times Ventura County editorial, the Ventura County Transportation Commission does not have $8 million to spend on improving public transportation systems. The money in question is derived from one quarter of a cent of the state sales tax and, under the state Transportation Development Act (TDA) is deposited in the county treasury for distribution on a formula basis primarily to the cities and county.

The commission has neither the legal nor moral obligation to spend the money. What the commission does have is the authority to require the cities and county to spend the money they receive in a certain priority order: first, for transit needs that can be reasonably met within their jurisdiction and, second, for streets and roads.

There are many transit needs; the key is whether they can be reasonably met. The TDA and its implementing regulations require that transit services maintain certain fare box return ratios to be considered reasonable to meet. These are 20% for urban services and 10% for rural services. These seem to be easy thresholds to meet, especially considering that capital costs for equipment and certain operational costs need not be counted. However, they have proven difficult to achieve, and it would be unlawful to use TDA revenues to pay for transit services that do not achieve the required fare box returns.

Recognizing that new services take time to get off the ground, the commission has established a test period during which prescribed fare box return ratios need not be met but progress toward them must be evidenced.

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Another error was the statement that “money for [building and maintaining roads] is available from many sources.” At the county level, the only money available for building roads comes from the federal and state gas tax and from that portion of TDA revenues available after reasonable-to-meet transit services in the unincorporated area have been provided.

Federal funds can only be spent on a limited portion of the county road system--arterials and urban and rural collectors--but not on local roads. And while federal money may be spent for substantial rehabilitation work or new construction, it may not be spent for routine maintenance. Only state gas tax and TDA funds are available for routine maintenance. These funds must also be used to meet the matching requirements for use of federal funds. In general, there is not enough of this money available to be used for new construction.

Ventura County is and has been supportive of providing transit service in the unincorporated area and participates in funding South Coast Area Transit (SCAT) and Ventura Intercity Services Transportation Authority (VISTA) services. We have also extended other services where we believed there was a reasonable chance the required fare box return ratios could be met. Sometimes these trials were successful; in other instances they were not and had to be terminated.

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Many persons make pleas for transit service that obviously would not draw sufficient clientele to generate the level of revenue to meet the required fare box return ratio. Those pleas are heard but the service cannot be lawfully provided.

We also hear pleas for road maintenance and rehabilitation work that we can’t provide. Until other funds are made available without restrictions on their use, we will continue to be unable to provide all the transit services desired or to keep the county road system in the condition we and our constituents would prefer.