Tucson’s public transit will remain free to ride until at least June 2025, Mayor Regina Romero reiterated at a study session Tuesday where the city council discussed more revenue options to keep it free indefinitely — from hotel or utility taxes to lottery dollars and partnerships.
It’s been four years since the City of Tucson made buses, street cars, and public transit vans free for all to use. While many community members benefit from and enjoy the free fares, the city has been struggling to find the best way to pick up the bill.
In a recent newsletter from Tucson Mayor Regina Romero’s office, her staff members referred to fare-free transit as “a public good that connects our community to resources so we can thrive.”
That was the general vibe from the April 9 city council meeting, with all of the active council members expressing support for maintaining free fares.
Just a month earlier, however, in a memo prepared for a discussion on free fares at the March 5 Mayor and City Council meeting, City Manager Michael Ortega recommended “Mayor and Council to direct staff to begin the process for a return to fare collection for Sun Link and Sun Express services.”
Reintroducing fares is not the current plan, Romero made clear at the April 9 meeting. The proposed city budget, Romero noted, includes free transit until June 2025.
Romero said the free-fares policy makes “not only economic sense, but environmental sense.”
She concluded, “The conversation continues.”
Funding options
At the meeting, Tucson’s Director of Transportation and Mobility Samuel Credio gave a presentation to the mayor and council members about how public transit could potentially be funded in the future.
Credio recapped funding options, including a public utility tax, agreements with other entities — such as schools and universities — or a hotel surcharge.
Another source of funding is the Local Transportation Assistance Fund which was funded by Arizona lottery tickets. Between 2007 and 2011, Tucson received almost $11 million dollars from the fund. Asked by various council members how they could reinstitute such a fund, Credio said he would look into it.
The mayor also expressed some interest in a hotel surcharge. If the city charged $1 per night for all hotel guests in the city, Credio said it could raise about $2 million per year. Right now, the city collects a bed surtax of $4 per night for hotel guests.
Council member Paul Cunningham, of Ward 2, said, “I have a core value that we should have free transit and people should be able to get where they want to get.”
Cunningham added that the city council should have the conversation again in September, after the city passes the next budget.
While agreeing with Cunningham, council member Lane Santa Cruz, of Ward 1, said, “It’s a waste of time to continue having this conversation about charging fares when we know they contribute less than 10% of the transportation budget.”
Santa Cruz also acknowledged that the city will need a more permanent funding source to maintain free fares.
Miranda Schubert, a former Ward 6 city council candidate, member of the Transit for All Coalition and the founder of the local housing and transit advocacy group Tucson for Everyone, was at the study session and agreed with Santa Cruz. Schubert told Arizona Luminaria that “the conversation needs to move beyond whether or not to reinstate fares.”
Schubert said that because revenue potentially gained from reinstating fares won’t cover operating costs, “We need to be creative and seek innovative ways to fund expansion and improvement of our public transit rather than pass the cost along to riders who can afford it the least.”
Aaron Wodka, Associate State Director of AARP, was also present at the study session to advocate for free fares. AARP is formerly the American Association of Retired Persons and focuses on advocating for the rights and benefits of people over 50.
“AARP’s mission is to enhance the quality of life for all as we age and we consider free-fare public transportation a crucial component in seeing our mission implemented,” Wodka said.
After speaking with various riders enjoying city transit, the mayor’s staff members concluded, in their recent survey, that the stories they shared “are a reminder of how City services like fare-free transit benefit Tucsonans in ways that we haven’t even begun to understand.”
Wodka, however, said it’s clear how free fares have already benefited the community. “AARP’s Tucson-based members have greatly benefited from this policy,” Wodka said, “and the increase in riders speak volumes to how worthwhile this investment is for all of Tucson.”
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