PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Transit supporters rallied at the State House on Thursday to push for a bill that they said is the state bus system's only hope this legislative session to improve its financial situation.
"We can't build a first-class transit system by raising fares and cutting service," said Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian, who chairs the board of the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority. "We need some stability and some certainty."
The bill would help give RIPTA a more dependable revenue source by speeding up the allocation of revenue from state license and registration fees to the Department of Transportation and RIPTA, with 65 percent going to the DOT and the rest to RIPTA.
Rep. Jeremiah T. O'Grady, D-Lincoln, sponsor of the bill, said that RIPTA's present financing system, which depends heavily on the state gas tax, has "a perverse effect":
When gas prices go up, people increasingly want to use transit and buses are full, but when gasoline sales decline, state gas tax revenues also decline.