TARC Proposes More Cuts This Summer

TARC is eliminating four routes and making cuts to 18 other this weekend. Now, the public transit agency is proposing more cuts to be made this summer. They include the elimination of some 20 routes and cuts to 15 more.Executive Director Barry Barker says they’ve proposed the cuts to offset a projected five-point-five million dollar shortfall in the upcoming fiscal year that starts in July.Barker says the cuts would affect eight to ten percent of TARC riders.“This is not where we like to be," says Barker. "I’d much rather be adding service, improving service, but we need funding to do that that we don’t have. But what we want to do is listen to folks and mitigate the harmful impact as much as possible.”TARC will hold public meetings on the proposed cuts the second week of March.Barker says the budget shortfall is because of declining occupational tax revenue and the loss of over three-million dollars in stimulus funds that were used last year.