Tempe In Motion officials announced Wednesday that the deficit in the city’s transit system is larger than they originally projected.

The announcement came during the first gathering in a second round of public meetings to weigh in on proposed route changes to the Tempe bus system.

At the first round of meetings in September, Tempe residents were presented with the city’s proposed route changes as a means to make up for a projected $7.4 million deficit, but Tempe now faces a $9.4 million deficit.

Sue Taaffe, Tempe’s community outreach and marketing coordinator, said the bus system was the city’s main focus in closing the deficit because it is the most costly entity in the city’s transit system.

The Mars, Earth, Jupiter and Venus Orbit buses as well as routes 66 and 62 were presented at the meeting with additional changes.

Greg Jordan, transit administrator for Tempe, said the changes currently proposed will make up about $3.7 million, roughly one-third of the $9.4 million deficit.

“It’s been a balancing act. We’re trying to balance the budget while reducing rider impact,” Jordan said.

Taaffe said the city received more than 325 resident comments in the first round of meetings and worked to adjust routes to fit riders’ needs.

“We did the best we could to accommodate everyone. We looked for patterns and went for the ones we thought we could address,” she said.

The city edited its originally proposed route changes after public comments were considered, she said.

“The first round was our best guess to account for the budget shortfalls,” Taaffe said.

Tempe resident Stu Mitnik said he was disappointed in the changes he saw to the Mars bus route because it would no longer go to the Tempe Public Library.

“The changes I see make it less accessible and potentially increase the commute,” Mitnik said.

Other residents, like Albert Dare, were pleased to see the efforts transit officials were making to make the routes more efficient.

“I’m really pleased to see [the changes] have taken some of the unnecessary bends out, and still made it accessible to the kids who use it every day to get to school,” Dare said.

The bus system is currently a free service funded by a half-cent sales tax. The deficit came as a result of a 10 percent decline in Tempe sales tax because of the sagging economy, according to Tempe in Motion.

The city is now considering charging a bus fare and asked residents Wednesday if they would be willing to pay a fare and if so, how much.
Tempe resident Naida Axford raised some applause when she spoke out at the meeting to oppose any fee for use of the bus system.

“The project was sold to the public as a free service,” Axford said. “I wonder about the legal implications and the trust of the community even suggesting a fare be paid.”

Also disappointed to see the city’s lack of transparency in regard to the budget, Axford said she wished Tempe would present the budget instead of bus routes drawn out on a map.

Wednesday’s meeting was the first of three the city will hold before taking the proposed changes to its transportation department.

Additional meetings will be held Nov. 4 at 6 p.m. and Nov. 7 at 10 a.m. in the Tempe Transportation Center.

Residents can also comment about the new route proposals online until Nov. 8.

Tempe In Motion will bring a revised proposal to the transportation commission’s citizen advisory on Nov. 17 and later to the transportation committee before it is ultimately presented to the Tempe City Council in December.

The currently proposed changes would go into effect in January, however Jordan said the city now has a three-phase plan for the future and will consider further cuts in the spring of 2010.

Reach the reporter at michelle.parks@asu.edu.