Doa Ana County Commissioners vote to increase funding for rural bus service

The Doña Ana County Commissioners voted Tuesday 3-2 to continue to subsidize the South Central Regional Transit District with an additional $350,000.

The money will be granted in monthly installments, under the requirement that the district provide monthly reports of ridership.

An ABC-7 special report from 2016 revealed that several of the lines had very low ridership.

“What i hate is a redundant system that takes advantage of poor people,” said Commissioner Billy Rawson, representing District 3. “(It) takes advantage of poor people to keep the second-most top-heavy system in the state.”

Proponents of the size of the bus service say it’s needed to connect impoverished people in the southern parts of the state with needed resources, like healthcare.

“We talk about the poor, because more than 25% of the people in Doña Ana County live below the poverty line,” said Commissioner Billy Garrett, who represents District 1. “There are real issues with hunger… this is reality for us.”

Others said that the southern part of New Mexico is lagging behind other parts of the state, when it comes to providing public transportation.

“If we don’t get our act together and get organized and get our transit and rail and stuff going in this region like Albuquerque and Denver and Cheyenne have, we’re not going to get that,” said Sharon Thomas, who is in favor of the system. “It’s going to come to Albuquerque and go to Phoenix and Tucson and we’re going to be left out.”

Without this grant, the transit system would have had to cut back much of its services.

“It’s not just a one-city system,” Thomas said. “It’s a huge, comprehensive, regional system that includes many counties, many systems and connects to many other systems.”