Answer Man: Metro relies on grants, assistance

Q: My Cleveland Browns recently came to town to play the Rams at the Edward Jones Dome. I decided to take the Rams Express to the game and back. I was surprised to see that a round-trip ticket was only $5. That sounds like a real steal to me! How can the St. Clair County Transit District even cover operating expenses with a ticket price like that?

A: Quite honestly, it has as little chance of doing that as your Browns do of making the playoffs. If you consider ticket price alone, you scored a touchdown of a deal that saved you the hassle and expense of gas, driving and parking even though your Abraham Lincoln didn’t begin to cover the actual cost of the convenience you enjoyed.

Surprised? You shouldn’t be. Forget the Rams Express. The same is true every time anyone forks over $2 to board a MetroBus or $2.50 for a MetroLink ride. It may not seem like it as you part with those hard-earned dollars all the time, but here’s the gospel truth: If you added up all the fares paid by every rider in a year, it would not cover even one-fifth of the expense that Metro Transit incurs.

According to Metro’s fiscal year 2015 budget that ended June 30, the transportation system expected 29 million bus passengers to drop in $33 million, 17 million MetroLink riders to pay $19 million and some 600,000 Call-A-Ride customers to contribute just over $1 million for a total passenger revenue stream of about $53.5 million. That may sound like a lot to some people, but it was dwarfed by the annual operating expenses Metro expected to face: $273 million, including pay and benefits, fuel, parts and supplies, utilities and insurance.

In other words, even though it projected continued growth in ridership, Metro expected the money that goes into the fare box would cover just 18.6 percent of its costs, leaving it a deficit of some $220 million in operating expenses alone. So how does Metro solve this massive imbalance? As the late, great Fred Rogers might have said if he were visiting our neighborhood, “Can you say ‘subsidy’? I knew you could!”

Yes, according to Metro’s budget, grants and assistance make up the whopping majority of the system’s revenue — nearly 78 percent. And where do these “grants and assistance” come from? Ultimately from your tax dollars, of course. Each year, governmental bodies set aside part of the revenue you send them to keep Metro rolling.

“The Bi-State Development Agency is not a taxing authority; therefore, it does not have the power to directly collect taxes for operations,” the budget explains. “Annually, St. Louis City, St. Louis County and St. Clair County determine the level of service they will support based on the resources at their disposal. Each jurisdiction goes through a formal appropriation process to annually fund the services they determine to be desirable to meet the needs of their region.”

So, in reality, your $5 contribution to Metro’s budget was just part of your ticket cost. Some of your tax money already was going to those transportation services whether you used them or not. In a way, I suppose, it’s like that old Fram oil filter slogan, “You can pay me now or pay me later,” although in your case the “or” was replaced by “and.”

Here’s the breakdown: Sales taxes in St. Louis City and County along with three other small Missouri subsidies were expected to account for $151 million of revenue, according to the Metro budget. Here in St. Clair County, we were slated to contribute $49.1 million— or nearly as much as you and all other passengers were expected to pay during the year. But wait, there’s more. Illinois was expected to throw in $2 million in matching funds while another $20 million in subsidies came from Uncle Sam. Final total: $223,266,277 to help you watch your Browns get buried (sorry about that).

This, of course, can fuel the system’s critics. If their ridership habits are like mine, they have not taken a bus in 50 years and rarely hop on the MetroLink. Why should they have to cough up so much money for a system they never use and one which could not survive on its own? Why not demand that Metro, like a private taxi company, charge riders the true cost?

The answer, of course, is obvious: If the Metro system couldn’t survive now, what would it be like if fares suddenly shot up fivefold? At $12.50 a ticket, MetroLink probably would be running ghost trains. Rather than spending $30 for the Rams Express, I’ll bet you would have driven so you’d have more money for hot dogs and foam fingers. The system likely would fold immediately.

Our civic leaders have decided that would not be wise. Just as government maintains public schools and roads, it has deemed public mass transportation both a worthy and necessary service to make commuting more convenient for some (saving wear, tear and congestion on roads and bridges) while helping those who may lack the means to get around otherwise. So, personally, I’m hoping Metro will continue to offer the Redbird Express and Friday night rides to The Muny at an attractive-enough fare to cover some of the cost while subsidizing the rest to make life in the area a little more enjoyable.

Today’s trivia

How many miles do Metro Transit System buses and trains travel on their routes in a year?

Answer to Friday’s trivia: It was St. Louis Cardinal southpaw Mark Mulder who threw the first competitive pitch in the new Busch Stadium, a ball to Milwaukee’s Brady Clark at 3:14 p.m. April 10, 2006. In the second inning, David Eckstein would collect the first Cardinal hit, and, in the third, Albert Pujols would christen the stadium with its first Cardinal home run. Mulder would pitch eight innings and bang out two hits himself in earning the 6-4 win. But after compiling a 5-1 record to start the spring, Mulder began battling a series of injuries and went 1-9 with the Birds over the next three years, his last in baseball. Now 38, he was invited to spring training by the Los Angeles Angels in 2014, but tore his Achilles tendon on the second day of drills, ending all comeback dreams.

This story was originally published December 19, 2015 at 5:32 PM with the headline "Answer Man: Metro relies on grants, assistance."