The city of Fort Collins' recommended
2008-2009 budget represents an enormous amount of work. It is
reflective of the commitment of many people who care a great
deal about the city. It is not reflective, however, of a
community that has 20 percent of its residents living below the
poverty level. Nor is it reflective of a city that has members
who have mobility issues or disabilities.
The imbalance of priorities in our budget
is clear when one looks at the funding of transit. TransFort
night service is not funded in the proposed budget. While we
haven't had night service in recent history, this current lack
of funding becomes a significant problem for those who depend
and rely on paratransit, such as Dial-A-Ride.
In the 2007 budget, the City Council voted to
cut Dial-A-Ride back to American with Disabilities Act
requirements. They granted one-time funding to extend night
service through 2007 while a task force convened to look at
other options in the community. After meeting for nearly a year,
the task force has completed its difficult task of combing
through all available resources, such as nonprofit groups,
churches and businesses that may be able to pick up the slack.
No viable solutions were found. The result is that people in
need of paratransit will be without nighttime transportation as
of Dec. 31.
In a perfect world, we would recommend
that TransFort night service be funded at just over $1.7
million. With that in place, Dial-A-Ride would be available for
those who qualify, because of ADA requirements. We realize,
however, ours is far from a perfect world, and the city is
making many cuts. Therefore, at a very minimum, we recommend
that for the 2008-2009 budget, nighttime Dial-A-Ride be funded
without funding nighttime TransFort.
The Dial-A-Ride line item would cost the
city less than $75,000 and would represent an invaluable,
essential service that should be provided to disabled members of
our community. This $75,000 could come from a variety of places
in the budget, or even from the city reserves. As it is an
urgent need, funding it from the reserves is completely
appropriate.
By means of comparison, the city will fund
downtown holiday lights at $75,000 each year. These lights are
not re-used and are cut down and thrown away at the end of each
season. Downtown landscaping costs us $900,000 each year. While
we realize that the city has some tough decisions to make
regarding the budget, we also strongly believe that paratransit
is a basic human right and should be a higher priority than
aesthetics.
The increase in Dial-A-Ride is a small
price to pay to ensure that disabled residents in Fort Collins
can be full participants in their community after 7 p.m. Without
Dial-A-Ride, disabled people will become prisoners in their own
homes. Paratransit is key in making sure that disabled members
of our community can get to work, school, medical appointments,
social engagements, and that they can enjoy what our community
has to offer.
The first reading of the budget is today.
We urge City Council not to balance the budget on the backs of
the most vulnerable. We ask them to ensure that Fort Collins is
an inclusive community and that the budget serves us all.