Earlier this year, officials with the Milwaukee County Transit System sprung an unpleasant surprise by announcing that they had a deficit of over $9 million dollars. Officials stated that the deficit was caused by things like overtime costs and a sudden increase in parts. (Thanks for nothing, Tariffman!) They also reported that $4 million was due to fare evasion.
Rep Lyin' Bryan Steil jumped into action by sending letters to Transportation Secretary Sean Crash Dummy Duffy and other DOT officials asking them to provide oversight of the Milwaukee County System. He didn't bother to contact transit system officials to see what the problem was or what they were doing to resolve it. His knee jerk reaction was to be a jerk and just get the feds involved.
The reason for the high fare evasion cost was that in 2022, bus drivers stopped pushing as hard for riders to pay their fare in an effort to promote safety:;And it was working. It lowered assaults on drivers by 42%.
However, Steil doesn't give a damn about the safety of the drivers or the riders. All he cares about is the only thing a Republican cares about - the Almighty Dollar:
For about three years, Milwaukee County's transit system policies have not had bus drivers specifically ask for fares as part of efforts to make buses safer, since fare disputes are the largest factor leading to assaults on drivers, according to the transit agency.
“Federal funds are intended to strengthen and sustain public transportation, not to compensate for avoidable revenue shortfalls caused by lax fare enforcement,” Steil says in the letter.
Steil would rather see a driver, regardless of their age or gender, throw down over a lousy two dollars rather than see taxpayer money actually help people who aren't billionaires.
The report also stated that Milwaukee fare evasion rate of 33% was on par for other cities like Seattle and Washington, DC. How much do you want to bet that the higher rates of fare evasion is because people are struggling under Trumpflation?
It would be nice if Steil would actually do the right thing and fix the problems he helped create with the OBB. And while he's at it, he could also sign off on releasing the Epstein files.
