The Cache Valley Transit District carries an average of 5,000 riders every day on its buses. Last week, the Cache County Council voted to reduce the amount CVTD will receive from a new sales tax.
“Well," said Todd Beutler, general manager of CVTD, "as a district, we never count on money until we actually have it.”
Last week, the Cache County Council adjusted the Transit District’s share of a new sales tax from 40% down to 10%. It’s not as much money as it could have been, but Beutler is taking the long view.
“We have an end goal of where we want to get to, but we recognize that things have to be phased," Beutler said. "And so I think from our standpoint we’ll do everything we can with that current allocation and put it into improving service, and then as allocations change in whatever way that they do, we’ll implement those changes as well.”
Beutler said CVTD is now projected to bring in just under $400,000 from the new sales tax in its first year. It’s not the one-and-a-half million originally projected, but it’s $400,000 in revenue they didn’t have before, and it’s important to what he said is the agency’s role in helping to deal with the valley’s increasing population.
“The long-term modeling shows that we just can’t build our way out of this with roads," Beutler said. "It’s going to take all of these solutions: active transportation, public transit, roads, cars, it’s going to take all of these various solutions to really deal with the growing population in the valley. And that’s something we need to continue to look for. We’re grateful we have partners like the county, and the cities that we serve, all these various partners trying to find solutions. It’s a great collaboration, honestly.”
