Replacing bus service

Tuesday, April 28, 2009 | 2:08 a.m.

For a city facing a $150 million budget shortfall over the next five years, Las Vegas sure displays inconsistent behavior when it comes to finances.

As reported Monday by Sam Skolnik in the Las Vegas Sun, the city wants to save taxpayers an estimated $850,000 a year by allowing the Regional Transportation Commission to take over low-cost downtown bus service for seniors and low-income residents. Yet the city has been unwilling to listen to reason by scrapping its outrageous plan to unnecessarily build a new city hall that could cost as much as $267 million.

Go figure.

The city’s quest to end its City Ride program, which charges eligible passengers 25 cents per trip, may very well turn out to be a wise cost-cutting move if the commission is able to provide a similar level of service at the same cost to riders.

Dan Hyde, the city’s fleet transportation service manager, made sense when he told the Sun: “The main reason for this is that there’s so much duplication of service.”

We would like to see the Las Vegas City Council use similar reasoning by exploring the potential cost saving of consolidating other functions that are provided by Clark County, including public works, parks and recreation, and business license services. There is no reason the quest to eliminate duplicated services should end with City Ride.

If the RTC can successfully absorb City Ride, that consolidation will join Metro Police and the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District as collaborative efforts that have paid dividends through savings and more efficient services.

Under these scenarios — and with a looming budget deficit — it makes no sense for Las Vegas to argue that it needs a new city hall. That would be throwing money away at a time when Las Vegas should be doing precisely the opposite.

What the city needs instead is responsible fiscal thinking that responds best to the public’s needs.