Yesterday, CollegeAvenueIndy.org featured a post about a legal notice in last Friday’s Indianapolis Star announcing a public hearing about IndyGo's 2017 budget. CollegeAvenueIndy.org learned that IndyGo will be asking the City County Council to levy a special property tax on local taxpayers in the amount of $16,300,000 to subsidize a shortfall in its 2017 operating budget. CollegeAvenueIndy.org looked at IndyGo's 2017 budget (http://www.indygo.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/2017-Budget-Book_General-Public.pdf) and did some napkin math to determine the actual cost of an IndyGo bus fare when one factors in public subsidies. In yesterday's post, CollegeAvenueIndy.org based its calculations upon IndyGo's published rate of $1.75 per one-way fare. One of our erudite commentators pointed out that our per-fare estimates are not accurate because seniors ride for half fare, and there are other various and sundry discount scenarios such as 31-day-pass users. Our esteemed commentator has proposed $1.05 per fare as a more accurate weighted estimate for an IndyGo one-way fare and CollegeAvenueIndy.org has agreed. Taking this into consideration, we have decided to recompute our findings as follows: IndyGo's total 2016 fare revenue was $11,260,215. This works out to 10.72mil trips annually based upon our newly agreed-upon rate of $1.05 per fare. CollegeAvenueIndy.org notes that IndyGo collected an additional $57,170,064 in public subsidies from Property & Excise Tax, the Public Mass Transit Fund, and the Federal Transit Fund. When one combines the revenue from rider fares and public subsidies together, the actual cost for a one-way IndyGo fare is $6.38 (where the rider pays $1.05 and tax payers pay a $5.33 per fare whether they ride the bus or not). Despite the $5.33 per fare public subsidy, IndyGo is running a budget defecit this year that will require the City County Council to levy an additional special property tax in the amount of $16,300,000 on local taxpayers. CollegeAvenueIndy.org notes that by itself, the $16,300,000 special property tax levy exceeds IndyGo's total 2016 rider fare revenue by more than $5,000,000. Moreover, the special property tax levy would increase IndyGo's annual public subsidy to a whopping $73,470,064. It also increases the actual cost of a one-way IndyGo fare to $6.85 (where the rider pays $1.05 and the taxpayer pays $5.80 per fare whether they ride the bus or not). CollegeAvenueIndy.org further notes that each round trip fare on an IndyGo bus costs taxpayers $11.60 (whether they ride the bus or not). In November, IndyGo will ask local taxpayers to vote for a new and indefinite income tax subsidy that will increase IndyGo's local public subsidy by more than $50,000,000 per year. This is in addition to the above-mentioned subsidies that each of us is already paying for bus service whether we ride the bus or not. CollegeAvenueIndy.org encourages you to share this information in advance of the November elections. Finally, click the link below to have a look at IndyGo's 2017 budget.