The T may operate fewer routes and less frequently because of budget shortfalls. On Monday, June 4, 2007, riders exited and boarded the bus at the Ninth and Massachusetts streets stop.

Next stop for the T: Dramatic service cuts.

Unless city commissioners can find approximately $450,000 worth of new funding for 2008, the city’s public transit system will cease to operate on Saturdays, will shut down two hours earlier on weekdays and likely would run routes on a much less frequent basis.

City commissioners were given the news Monday during the first day of hearings for the 2008 budget.

“There will be very few people who will find our service to be convenient for them, if we have to make these cuts,” said Cliff Galante, the city’s public transit administrator. “The service truly will be just for the transit dependent.”

Facing an expected shortfall in sales tax revenues and a slowdown in property tax growth, some city commissioners said they had to consider reducing the T’s service levels.

“The big thing here is that if the City Commission is not going to have a property tax increase, there’s going to have to be some reduction in services,” City Commissioner Mike Amyx said. “I think that is clearer in the public transit department than many other departments.”

The transit department for the past several years has been using fund balance money – the equivalent of a savings account – to fund a significant portion of transit operations. By the end of this year, however, the fund balances for the department will be all but gone.

To keep from raising property taxes, the city needs to reduce its annual payment to MV Transportation – a private company that operates the transit system – from about $1.53 million to about $1.1 million. Galante said the only way to do that was to implement several service cuts. Those would include:

¢ Eliminating all Saturday service for both the T and the paratransit system, which provides door-to-door transportation to people with disabilities. Currently, both systems operate from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturdays.

¢ Shutting down the weekday service for both the T and the paratransit system at 6 p.m., instead of its current closing time of 8 p.m.

¢ Running most T routes on an 80-minute cycle instead of the current 40-minute cycle. Or, as an alternative to the reduction in frequency, significantly cut down on the areas of town that the system services.

Fewer workers, riders

The cutback in services comes at the same time that transit leaders are recommending fares increase to $1 per ride, up from 50 cents currently.

Galante estimated that the cutbacks in service would result in about 15 layoffs of bus drivers and other employees of MV Transportation. Galante said the numbers of riders on the T also would decrease by at least 10 percent and perhaps significantly more.

The T had about 450,000 riders in 2006, up from about 200,000 when the system started in 2001. Galante said the cutbacks would be disappointing because now is one of the better times to grow public transit ridership due to high gasoline prices.

People without cars, though, may be the ones most affected by a change in service. Commissioner Boog Highberger said it was important to have a public transit system to serve those people who rely on it heavily, even if it does take a tax increase.

“I’m committed to maintaining the same level of service,” Highberger said. “It could put some people out of work if we made these cuts.”

That was the worry of some bus riders Monday who were told of the possible cuts. Miriam Torkzadeh, 18, was boarding the bus at Ninth and New Hampshire streets to get to her southern Lawrence home. Torkzadeh often uses the bus to get to her job at a North Lawrence gas station because she has no car.

“Oh God, that’s horrible,” Torkzadeh said of the possible cuts. “It would definitely affect me.”

Library funding

City commissioners heard several other budget-related items at Monday’s hearing. They included a request for a 7 percent funding increase for the Lawrence Public Library to improve staff salaries, book purchases, videoconferencing capabilities and additional security guard hours. City commissioners urged the library board to consider revising the request to be closer to a 3 percent increase. But commissioners did say that they were willing to consider backing off their order to cut 6 percent from this year’s library budget.

The commission has ordered all agencies that receive funding from the city to cut 6 percent from their 2007 budgets in an effort to trim about $3.5 million from the budget. But commissioners may back off of that with the library because, by law, any money cut from the library budget this year could not be used to pay for other city purposes. The money would have to remain in a fund to be used by the library in the future.

Library director Bruce Flanders said if the library could be spared from the 6 percent cut, it would be less likely that the library would have to cut its hours of operation, which is an option Flanders has said would be likely if this year’s budget is slashed.

Commissioners will have a second day of budget hearings from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. today at City Hall, Sixth and Massachusetts streets.