As they head into budget discussions at tonight’s meeting, Lawrence city commissioners need to be honest with themselves and their constituents about their support – or lack of support – for the city’s bus system.

So far, commissioners have been passing the buck. Rather than making any decision about whether to maintain, decrease or do away with T service, commissioners are sidestepping the issue by moving toward a ballot question that would include a proposed 0.2 percent sales tax to support the bus system.

In the meantime, they will be looking at a budget tonight that provides no funding for the T in 2009. Eliminating the T from the budget will allow the city to hold the line on the property tax levy, but it doesn’t really address the future of the T. If the community failed to approve the sales tax increase, it still would be up to the commission to decide whether to kill the T or try to scrape together enough funding to provide at least limited bus service.

A failed sales tax vote may be more of a comment on the state of the economy than on how voters view the T. Even supporters of the T say it is difficult to support a sales tax increase and that the commission’s plan to have a separate vote on the T’s portion of the sales tax likely will doom the bus system.

Is that the commission’s intent? It’s ironic that when the nation is facing an energy crisis that has many states and communities looking at expanded public transportation services, Lawrence is looking at killing the T. Commissioners won’t say we should do away with the T but they don’t want to include it in their budget. They are moving half-heartedly toward a sales tax measure but are unwilling to pair funding for the T with funding for infrastructure improvements, apparently because they fear that tying the two issues together will make it more likely both will fail.

If commissioners move forward with the sales tax vote and a budget that doesn’t include funding for the T, will they actively campaign for both pieces of the sales tax? Or is this just an exercise to take commissioners off the hook for killing the T?

It’s time for commissioners to take responsibility and level with the people who elected them.