LOCAL MOTION RIPTA gets help, but its future remains uncertain BY BRIAN C. JONES

Rhode Island’s mass transit system is getting a big injection of cash from the General Assembly — probably enough to solve a deficit and avoid the threat of the service cutbacks that plagued the service last year.

But it’s not a free ride for the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority.

In fact, in rerouting an extra penny from the state’s gasoline tax, worth $4.7 million to RIPTA, the legislature ordered two studies with the potential to bring dramatic changes to the bus system. One "marketing study" is intended to find out why RIPTA doesn’t have more riders; the other is to explore whether RIPTA should be folded into the state Department of Transportation. "We need to look at what direction RIPTA is going in," says state Representative Steven M. Costantino (D-Providence), chairman of the House Finance Committee. "You can’t come to us every year with $6 million deficits."

The sternness of the warning is emphasized by the legislature’s specific orders that the two studies be supervised not by RIPTA, but by the state Budget Office, which will likely contract them out. "We don’t want the same agency doing the study," Costantino says.

The new money comes from shifting a full penny of the state’s 30 cents a gallon gasoline tax to RIPTA. The bus line had been getting 6.25 cents from the state’s 30-cent per gallon tax, and will now get a 7.25 cents. The Budget Office estimates this will bring in a total of about $34.5 million toward a budget that RIPTA says totals about $82.2 million, with the rest made up by federal money and fares.

Henry S. Kinch Jr., RIPTA’s deputy general manager, says the service is facing a $6.8 million deficit. The extra funds will reduce that sharply, and RIPTA also will be able to have its 800 workers share a portion of their health insurance premiums. Other savings should get rid of the deficit, Kinch says, without causing cutbacks in service.

Kinch says there are arguments on both sides of the proposition of moving the independent agency into DOT, and he offered no opinion.

State Representative Arthur Handy (D-Cranston), part of a coalition to advocate for better transit and to speak for bus riders — the New Public Transit Alliance — says he’s glad to see the extra money. Handy, director of communications for the American Lung Association of Rhode Island, agrees with Costantino about the need for a ridership study. "We need to build a sense that everybody wants to use RIPTA as much as they can," he says, with the goal of reducing car use.

Still unclear is the fate of the four new members that Governor Donald L. Carcieri wants to appoint to the RIPTA board. The Senate did not confirm them when the regular session ended earlier this month.

The board is currently chaired by Thomas E. Deller, director of the Providence Department of Planning & Development; Robert Batting, a previous Carcieri appointee, is vice chairman; Other board members are James R. Capaldi, state DOT director; William C. Kennedy, and Sharon Conard-Wells.