Keeping Madison Metro buses from raising fares or making "drastic service cuts" next year is the goal behind an additional $360,000 that Mayor Dave Cieslewicz has pledged the department for 2006.
But Metro general manager Catherine Debo said that while fares would likely stay as they are now, some service reductions next year are inevitable.
The extent to which Cieslewicz's commitment -- about half of what the department requested -- can meet the target of keeping rates and routes near constant depends to a large degree on the price of fuel next year, the mayor said.
Cieslewicz said that the $360,000 in additional city funding matches the amount raised by a fare increase that was approved in August, and it would cover the increased cost of fuel if 2006 prices are consistent with what they were this year.
The amount would raise the city's expenditures on Metro, which has roughly a $40 million annual budget, from about $8.3 million to $8.6 million per year.
Cieslewicz said that though he was willing to show "a pretty strong commitment" to mass transit again this year, he added that "in the long run we need to rethink how we provide mass transit not just in the city, but regionally."
Debo said that she was grateful for the increased funding and said Cieslewicz "deserves credit" for supporting public transportation in the city. At the same time, though, she said her department has begun to prepare options for reducing bus routes.
"There will definitely be service changes and they certainly will be noticed," she said, but declined to detail how routes and bus schedules might be affected.
Cieslewicz said that differing forecasts of how high fuel prices will be next year accounts for the difference between his allocation and the department's request for about $705,000 in additional city funds.
Metro based its request on fuel prices over the last two months; Cieslewicz said the city considered averages over the past year.
Debo said that there is not a lot of disagreement over the fuel forecasts; everyone sees prices remaining high.
"We based our forecasts on the trend, and it's the trend that's particularly creepy. It's an ugly pattern," she said.
"High fuel prices are probably here to stay," Cieslewicz said. "In light of that fact, it's more important than ever to maintain a high-quality mass transit system to move workers to and from their jobs."
To aid the system's long-term health, Cieslewicz said he is forming a panel of Metro officials, bus riders and Parking and Transit Commission members to "not only save, but improve the service into the future."
Over the last two years, the city's subsidy to Metro has increased by 14 percent. The city pays about 20 percent of the department's budget. Roughly another fifth of Metro's budget comes from ridership fares and the rest comes from federal funding and other sources of revenue.
In addition to announcing the additional $360,000 in city funding for Metro, Cieslewicz said that he had also set aside $40,000 for a program to help low-income people ride the bus.
Ald. Brenda Konkel, who has been an advocate for keeping bus fares low and maintaining service, said that it was important for the health of the city to keep ridership as high as possible.
Concerning the $40,000 the mayor has marked for low-income riders, Konkel said she hoped it didn't duplicate the efforts of several agencies to provide free bus passes for homeless people and others who qualify for various forms of assistance.
"I think we really need to focus our efforts on the working poor," she said.