The financial woes of the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority are only getting worse.
Last summer, it had to cut service to accommodate a deficit. Now, facing a larger deficit for the next fiscal year, PVTA riders might see not only more cuts to service but also an increase in fare from $1.25 to $1.60.
The Five Colleges need to step up to prevent these cuts and fare increases. Right now, the PVTA assesses the towns and cities that it services, raising $8.7 million, or 19 percent of its annual budget. It does not assess the Five Colleges. Instead, the towns request a contribution from the Five Colleges. In 2017, that amount was just under $516,000, according to the University of Massachusetts Transportation Services.
This is a piddling sum, and it is arguably an underpayment. Here is the math. Consider that Five-College students and staff ride for free on the PVTA. In 2017, according to the PVTA, the number of these free rides was over 717,000. If the PVTA had charged these riders fare, they would have collected over $896,000.
The Five Colleges might call their contribution a subsidy, but in fact, in 2017 the towns subsidized the Five Colleges to the amount of $380,000. That constituted about one third of the budget shortfall that the PVTA faced last summer. If the Five-College contribution remains the same, and the fare increases to $1.60 as planned, the towns will be subsidizing the Five Colleges to the amount of $631,000.
It goes without saying that the Five Colleges, not the taxpayers in the towns, should be paying for the rides of students and staff. The towns might also consider that the Five Colleges have a duty to be good stewards and help the PVTA beyond just paying the fare for their students and staff. The Five Colleges are the largest employers in the region.
The Five Colleges are committed to sustainability and social justice. They know that their students and faculty come here from all over the world because of the cosmopolitan lifestyle that public transportation makes possible.
Collectively, the Five Colleges have an endowment of close to $5 billion. Giving faculty and staff access to good public transportation is arguably one of the most important tasks that the Five Colleges have to fulfill their mission of being a connected, educational consortium.
Surely they can pay for the fare of their students and staff and offer the PVTA a real subsidy.
Andrew Donson
Northampton