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But for residents with disabilities who make the same 100-mile gambling run on the publicly funded North County Transit District's LIFT buses, the charge is just $8.
The cash-poor transit district spends about $55,000 each year driving people with disabilities to and from local casinos, a service federal law requires it to provide. Such trips are a small chunk of the $4 million the district spends each year on service for the disabled, but board members are still grumbling about the backcountry gambling jaunts.
The district's small, wheelchair-accessible LIFT buses provide an average of 67 round trips to casinos per month from points throughout the district.
An average one-way LIFT trip costs the district $33.47 to pay for staffing and fuel, according to NCTD, which provides commuter train, light-rail and bus service across North County. Casino-bound trips, especially from faraway points such as San Clemente, cost significantly more, district officials said. No exact cost was available.
The taxpayer-subsidized rides came under fire late last month from several NCTD board members. Some said the LIFT buses shouldn't be used to taxi gamblers to the backcountry. Others said it was time to ask the tribal-owned casinos to pitch in for the service cost, an idea at least one tribal leader said he would consider.
"I have a big issue with this," said county Supervisor Bill Horn, who sits on the transit board and spoke at its Oct. 22 meeting. "I don't think we should be subsidizing that trip ... It just doesn't seem right to me, I'm sorry."
"That's really not what I think the LIFT service was intended to do," added board member Carl Hilliard, a Del Mar city councilman.
District officials said the law on the matter -- the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 -- isn't flexible.
"It's not our role to judge (where the riders want to go)," said Sarah Benson, an NCTD spokeswoman. "It's a federal right that we can't discriminate based on a casino trip or a medical appointment."
District officials noted that the casinos are not the most popular destination for LIFT riders. Medical appointments and shopping/errands ranked at the top, according to a 2005 district study, followed next by "social or recreational activities."
Benson added that the casino runs have not jammed the LIFT service. In fact, she said, no rider requests have been denied in the past year. Passengers, who must be ADA-certified, are required to make appointments at least a day in advance.
LIFT trips are offered anywhere the district's fixed routes run across a 1,020-square-mile coverage area, from San Clemente in the north to La Jolla in the south, and Valley Center and Ramona to the east. The casino runs from San Clemente cost the district probably $60 or $70 each way, estimated the district's chairman, Vista City Councilman Bob Campbell.
The district is required to provide LIFT service in San Clemente because it has a fixed route (395) that runs to that coastal city to connect with Orange County transit buses.
The disability act compels transit districts to provide LIFT or "paratransit service," as it's called, within a 3/4-mile radius of fixed route corridors. It also limits the amount the district can charge for paratransit service, preventing NCTD from charging any more than $4 each way.
Campbell said at the meeting, and repeated last week, that he'd like to see local tribes pay the district for the service. He noted he's already contacted one tribal official about the idea.
At least one tribal leader contacted by the North County Times said he's willing to talk with transit leaders, according to his spokeswoman.
Bo Mazzetti, chairman of the Rincon Band of Luiseno Indians, which owns Harrah's Rincon Casino, said he had not been approached about the idea of helping pay for LIFT service to the casinos, but "he thought it was a really interesting idea and looked forward to more information," said spokeswoman Nikki Symington said. She added that Mazzetti could not speak for other tribes.
Tribal officials for the San Pasqual Band of Mission Indians, which owns Valley View Casino in Valley Center, and the Pala Band of Mission Indians, which owns Pala Casino in Pala, were not available for comment.
Transit district leaders early next year will consider how to make the LIFT bus service more cost-effective. Matt Tucker, the district's executive director, said he hoped partnerships can be created with the tribes.
Benson said the LIFT bus service provides an average of nine one-way trips from San Clemente to backcountry casinos per month.
Despite the high cost to the district of the casino-bound trips, they amount to a small chunk of LIFT's nearly $4 million annual budget, noted Chris Orlando, an NCTD board member and San Marcos city councilman.
The district spends nearly twice as much, about $100,000 annually, on LIFT trips along North Torrey Pines Road. Service cuts this spring by the Metropolitan Transit System, the San Diego-based agency, left a service gap along that road, Benson said.
NCTD now provides an average of 260 LIFT trips in that area, home to Torrey Pines Scripps Clinic. That's up from about 160 LIFT trips a month before the other agency's cuts, she said.
The district is in the early stages of deciding whether to cut some fixed bus routes and bolster others as it completes its Mobility Plan, a master plan for the next several years.
It cannot eliminate any paratransit coverage area unless it also cuts fixed route service in the same area, said Tucker, NCTD's executive director.
Tucker added that "(LIFT) service is absolutely important. But the question is: How much can we afford?"
NCTD PARATRANSIT SERVICE BY THE NUMBERS
--$3.86 million: Cost to provide all paratransit trips in 2008-09 fiscal year
--115,496: Total number of paratransit trips provided
--$100,000: Cost per year district spends on paratransit trips to North Torrey Pines Road area
--$55,000: Cost per year district spends on paratransit trips to local casinos
--$33: The district's average cost per trip to provide paratransit service
--$4: Maximum price district can legally charge riders for any one-way paratransit trip
To see more of the North County Times, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.nctimes.com. Copyright (c) 2009, North County Times, Escondido, Calif. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
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