Cap Metro Looking To Jack Up Price For UT Shuttles

By alcalde in Blog on July 19, 2010 at 8:13 am | No Comments

Austin’s Capital Metro transit agency is considering asking The University of Texas to more heavily subsidize the shuttles for UT students and staff.

In the last 10 years, it has cost Cap Metro $108.1 million to run the UT shuttles; UT has paid $52.8 million of that, the American-Statesman reports.

Cap Metro, which has run the UT shuttle system since 1989, is looking at whether to renew its contract with UT this month as it firms up its budget for next year.

UT officials point out that students and staff pay the 1 percent sales tax that all other Austin residents do. Taxpayer money subsidizes the cost of normal Cap Metro fares to the tune of 90 percent. With the money that the University pitches in, the UT shuttles are among the cheapest that Cap Metro runs.

“UT students are subsidized much less than Austin residents,” Pat Clubb, UT’s vice president for university operations, told the Statesman. “The students are taxpayers too; they pay sales tax on everything they buy….

Why shouldn’t they be subsidized if every other citizen is subsidized?”

Already hit with a 5 percent reduction in state money, UT is preparing for an additional 10 percent cut from the Legislature.