State taxpayers taken for a ride

Editorial by Burlington Times-News, July 21, 2014.

Ever wonder about all the nooks and crannies where your tax dollars go?

Here’s one a lot of people don’t even know about. It will likely have you scratching your head about the twisted logic the folks in Raleigh have about spending your money. Folks in Washington, too.

People who make decisions at the North Carolina Department of Transportation think it’s a good idea for taxpayers to finance bus service from Charlotte to Wilmington. It’s called the Queen City Coastal Connector and it started this month.

Now, you might have assumed that travelers could catch a Greyhound for that trip to the coast.

You’d be right.

Greyhound buses do pick up passengers in Charlotte — not to mention other cities (unfortunately, none in Alamance County at the moment) — and roll them over the state’s highways and byways all the way to Wilmington. The trip takes 11 hours from Charlotte, making stops that make economic sense for the privately operated bus company. In other words, passengers pay the cost for their trip.

The thinking at DOT is that 11 hours is too long, so your tax dollars have been handed over to another company, Horizon Coach Lines, to speed up the trip. Passengers pay $57 one way with a $10 discount for children and seniors over age 62.

That’s right. Your taxes are paying to help people ride a bus from Charlotte to Wilmington. It makes a few stops in-between, but none near Alamance County.

The idea for this faster trip came from another outfit supported by your taxes — N.C. State University’s Institute for Public Transportation Research and Education. There is, it appears, a government agency for just about anything the politicians and bureaucrats can think up.

A less-than-11-hour trip between Charlotte and Wilmington ended sometime back because it was unprofitable for the bus company. That means the company was losing money because there were too few people taking the trip — too little demand — to cover the cost at a price those passengers were willing to pay.

If there were enough demand for a faster trip between Charlotte and Wilmington, you can bet the bus company would be rolling down the roads for passengers to feel the sea breeze of North Carolina’s beautiful coast.

Economic sensibility, however, isn’t a concern to government. The NSCU folks talked to the DOT folks and voila! Travel to the coast on the backs of taxpayers.

Those Charlotte to Wilmington passengers — the few that they are — have fellow Americans from California to the Carolinas, from North Dakota to Texas — from all the states, actually — to thank for this travel assistance because the subsidy comes filtered through Washington.

If you think other government programs — public safety, for example — make more sense than paying to run buses between Charlotte and Wilmington, let Congressman Howard Coble know. Tell state legislators — Reps. Dennis Riddell and Steve Ross and Sen. Rick Gunn  — too.

This nook — or maybe it’s a cranny — is no place to stick a single dollar of the taxes you pay.

http://www.thetimesnews.com/opinion/our-opinion/state-taxpayers-being-taken-for-a-ride-1.348636