BY SUSAN BROWN, Times of Northwest Indiana
sbrown@nwitimes.com
HAMMOND | During a 90-minute meeting between Regional Bus Authority officials and the Hammond City Council on Tuesday, RBA President Dennis Rittenmeyer floated a plan that would lead to RBA oversight of the city's bus service over a three- or four-year period.
The plan would require the City Council to avoid eliminating transit system funding as it considers next year's budget.
Council President Dan Repay has made public his recommendation to Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. that the bus service be cut from the 2009 budget. Repay argues cutting the cost of the service, estimated at about $1 million this year, would help plug the city's 2009 shortfall. On Tuesday, Repay said the gap could be as high as $1.7 million.
In turn, McDermott revealed his proposed budget will fund the bus service at the 2008 level. Though he supports cutting the bus service, McDermott has said he would not stand in the way of whatever decision the council makes. Last week, 4th District Councilwoman Kim Poland asked for a meeting with Rittenmeyer on the bus issue.
Rittenmeyer said the plan he proposed Tuesday was crafted in recent months by RBA board member Stephen Adik.
It offers no immediate bailout to Hammond to save the bus service should the council vote it out. Instead, the plan requires the cooperation of Gary and East Chicago. The three cities would be asked to turn over their local busing money to the RBA, which would assume responsibility for transportation in the cities as it works to create a regional system. The cities' annual contribution would decline over a three- or four-year period. At the end of that time, the cities would no longer be in the bus business.
"The problem is the local match," Rittenmeyer said. "Find that, and the state will follow."
Poland, who called for the meeting and supports retaining the bus service, later said she believes the plan is a viable option.
Repay said his next step will be to contact Gary and East Chicago officials about their plans for the future, though he doesn't believe the RBA plan is a remedy for Hammond's current budget issues.
"It doesn't solve our problem. We're still going to spend $1 million. I understand where they're coming from, but there's no gain for our side," Repay said. "Independently, we're going to have to do what's right for Hammond, but on a regional basis, we'll see what the other cities plan to do. Maybe we can come up with a plan."
Seven of the nine council members attended Tuesday's informational meeting with Rittenmeyer and newly named RBA Executive Director Tim Brown. They were Repay, Poland, 1st District Councilman Mark Kalwinski, 3rd District Councilman Anthony Higgs, 6th District Councilman Homero "Chico" Hinojosa, Councilman at-large Robert Markovich and Councilwoman at-large JoAnn Matonovich.
Also attending was Tim Sanders, executive director of the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority, who joined Rittenmeyer in emphasizing the problem of securing the local revenues to leverage state and federal dollars. Local matching money is important because the RDA and RBA cannot provide operating funds to the cities for their bus services.