Bus funding kicks the can down the road

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - Transit workers and bus riders led a protest that knocked on City Hall’s door before a Kansas City City Council meeting on Thursday.

Many were concerned that buses and Iris workers that contract to drive through Z Trip will experience cuts – including drivers and up to 13 city bus routes.

Lisa Miller has been riding the bus for a long time. She uses it to get to work, the grocery store, and even the doctor’s office.

“I would like to challenge the mayor and the city council. For the whole week, don’t take your car, take the bus,” Miller said. “Go to the grocery store – take the bus, and then you’ll know how to vote.”

Miller and other protesters that were carrying stop-sign cutouts with the words, “Stop the Cuts” were disappointed when a possible band-aide – six months of funding was pulled from the council agenda.

Mayor Quinton Lucas said the discussion would be moved back into the Finance, Governance and Public Safety Committee for a meeting on Tuesday at 10:30am.

Prior to that decision a council agenda item worth a little less than $47 million would have funded the KCATA for six months.

That plan was similar, if not exact, to the initial plan that would have funded the KCATA for a year, but at around $82 million.

For comparison, last year’s KCATA’s operating expenses were $113 million, which is why the KCATA held listening sessions with the community to discuss what routes and other expenses they could cut with the community.

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