The students pay fees to help cover costs of bus passes and UTA provides a discount for this significant subsidy. Now UTA has raised the price, from $20 to $120, by slashing the discount! That drastically raises the price of your student pass by 600%!
Sometimes, we are told, that cuts must be made...
In 2010, UTA General Manager, John Inglish made $339,179 before bonuses and allowances. He makes more than his peers in New York, LA, DC, and Chicago, some of which are 60 times the size of Utah’s. Some of UTA's top executives’ salaries went up by as much as 32 percent between 2005 and 2009, in the middle of a recession and even as Inglish cut back on bus lines and laid employees off to save money. Next on the chopping block? Your student passes!
These salaries are determines by the UTA Board of Trustees in a secret process, the records of which they refuse to make public.
This makes me sick. I'm buying a bike. It will take me awhile to ride the 12 miles to school and back but in good weather it should be do-able. Disgusting how people take form the ones who have limited choices (like me who has no car and must ride the bus.)
ReplyDeleteWhile I enthusiastically support anybody who rides a bike for transportation, it doesn't address the societal problem at large, namely the massive corruption of 'public' transportation. We need a public solution to a public problem, not a private one. We can make a difference if any only if we band together and organize, we can and should!
ReplyDeleteSo what can we do about it?
ReplyDeleteStart by calling John Inglish (801) 287-3220. Tell him to restore fair prices for bus passes. Tell him to stop paying out bonuses for the bosses while expecting more money from the students.
ReplyDeleteWe're having planning meetings which will be announced soon. Come to those meetings, get organized and get organizing others. We've been flyering at campus to raise awareness and we can always use help for that.
I don't know if this can help, but isn't the point of UTA to reduce pollution as much as they could? If they increase the money, they may lose customers and some of the customers will use their car and increase the pollution risks? Just a tip.
ReplyDeleteThere are definitely environmental concerns involved with this. I know that UTA plans to develop a trolley line to the Sugar House area because its a shopping district, yet I doubt we'll ever see a line out to somewhere like Magna where people actually need cheap reliable public transit.
ReplyDeleteDuring a time of recession the government needs to do what is most profitable for them so that they can still continue to run the state. With all the bills that the legislature has to pay im pretty sure that they need more money in order to cover the deficits. I don't like that they have raised the prices but we need to sacrifice and pay more so we can support our government. During world war two, people paid ridiculous amounts of money for their government, today isn't much different. If we want the services, we need to pay the price. I don't like how the owner makes a lot of money and i believe we should raise taxes for him and the other millionaires, but we can't do anything about that.
ReplyDelete