For more than a decade there has been a concentrated effort to bring a unified bus system to Lake County and beyond.
There have been countless studies completed. Each has shown a need for fixed-route, paratransit and demand-response service.
At the insistence of local officials, the General Assembly created the Northwest Indiana Regional Bus Authority, but didn’t give it a means of raising capital and operating funds.
The RBA did its best to unite the existing bus services within Lake County — a move that would have made it a more powerful organization when it came to establishing a fixed funding source.
To his credit, Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott folded the city’s bus service into the RBA and gave the bus operation $900,000 a year for 2010 and 2011.
Sadly, Gary refused to become a part of the RBA. That must change if there is going to be a future for bus service across the region.
The Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority gave the RBA $4 million. It will be gone at year’s end.
The RBA is now on death row. Its last funds will be gone in mid-2012.
The RBA and local elected officials need to be a voice for those who need the service. They must identify a permanent funding source.
Funding likely will involve imposition of a tax. It can be done with the least amount of pain.
A region as populated as Northwest Indiana needs bus service. The quality of life is lessened without it. Will our elected officials act or opt for lethal injection?