Protesters came with signs and left with smiles after a proposal to increase fares for bus and light-rail services failed Wednesday.
In a near-unanimous vote, the Utah Transit Authority board of trustees rejected a proposal to increase fares for more than a dozen transit services.
The decision — which will be reconsidered during a meeting next month — came as an unexpected victory to a handful of low-income and paratransit riders who were protesting the fare hikes.
"I am disabled. I am now out of work and I have a fixed income of $261 a month," said Robert Dunn, a wheelchair-bound opponent of the increase. "You raise the fare, you just totally break me."
While mindful of the impact of higher fees on residents, UTA General Manager John Inglish said he was torn over the board's decision to reject the proposal and to study the issue longer.
UTA has "zero" room to absorb rising costs of service, he said. The authority already has commitments to projects like commuter rail and light-rail expansions, with no federal money to subsidize costs of paratransit.
"I don't have any place to go," he said. "It's down to cutting services or increasing fares."
Inglish had been calling for several 5- to 10-cent fare increases in order to raise at least $800,000 in additional funds. Under his proposal, senior and disabled one-way fares would have increased 10 cents to 70 cents this year. The one-way paratransit fare would have jumped 5 cents to $2.05.
Additional increases, ranging from 5 cents to 15 cents, would have been added to one-way fares in 2006. Monthly passes would have increased between $3 and $6.
Barbara Toomer, an activist with the Disability Rights Action Committee, applauded the board's decision to study the issue further.
"These fare increases impact people with disabilities who have no other form of transportation," she said. "They have to use UTA. Most of them are on very low incomes."
LexAnne Hiss, who has multiple sclerosis and is in a wheelchair, told the board that it cost her $4 to go to the meeting. That cost can add up for people like her who live on only $261 each month, she said.
"The cost of fares for me is huge, but I need to have it," she said. "It is my life and most of you don't understand how that is. . . . It's a huge, huge, huge deal."
Dunn told the board that he has $5,600 in bills and can't afford to pay more for transportation. Last month, he said he received a $222 bill for medical services.
No additional formal public hearings will be held on the proposed fare increases, but the board is expected to debate the issue again next month. The public is invited to comment at that meeting.