Transit Sales Tax

Transit has received the support of the community for two rounds of sales tax funding, first in 2008 at a rate of 0.25% and then again in 2018 at a rate of 0.2%. The current sales tax period will sunset in 2029, and Transit is requesting a 0.1% increase to match rising national transit costs, which are up 75% since 2014.

Transit funding in the City of Lawrence is made up of about 50% Local Sales Tax, 40% Federal, and 10% state. The local dollars come from the Special Transit Sales Tax. For every $1 the City of Lawrence brings in with the Special Transit Sales Tax, we receive $1 in State or Federal grant funding.

Staff have been working to cut costs and increase revenues in an effort to continue providing the level of service that riders and members of the Lawrence community have come to rely on, including:

• Cut contract costs within available limits
• Delayed bus purchases
• Pursued grants to maximize local funding
• Focused on safety, efficiency, policy — instead of expanding services
• Managed the team with less staff through natural attrition
• Launched On Demand fares – $3 per one-way trip

The City and KU have separate budgets for our routes and have separate contracts with our service provider. We have two coordinated routes.  KU routes are funded by student fees, which are set by student senate.

Lawrence Transit has been using sales tax as its primary source of matching funds for around 18 years. Based on this structural decision, fares do not support the Transit budget in a significant way. Returning fares to our transit system will not replace our need for a sales tax. Fare free or not, our budget will remain structurally unbalanced without this 0.1% increase.

Transit vehicles are sized for the busiest point on the route. Having the right sized buses on each route is called load factor and it’s one our team considers in our route planning process. We have different sized buses we use on routes based on ridership, including small cutaways, 30-foot diesel, 40-foot electric.

The most expensive part of running transit is the driver, not the size of the bus. Smaller buses mean more drivers needed to carry the same amount of riders, so the larger buses actually help us carry our 7,000 daily riders more efficiently over time.

Even though buses could damage pavement more per vehicle, replacing dozens of cars with one bus reduces total system wear. Transit concentrates heavy loads in fewer vehicles, reducing total pavement demand across the network.