By Benjamin Garcia
Twitter: @AzNewsmedia

Tempe City Council virtually gathered at City Hall to be provided an update to its Transit Tax Fund and proposed mass-transit service changes locally on the horizon.

The Tempe Transit Tax was approved by voters in 1996 and provides a source of funding for bus, light rail and rapid-transit services, city officials say. The half-cent sales tax can provide up to about $44 million in operating revenue.

City officials report the locally funded mass-transit system has been expanded throughout the years including bus and rail services as Tempe home to the highest per capita transit ridership in the region, according to a city staff report.

In fiscal year 2020-21 the expected amount to operate all of Tempe’s transit services total about $45 million, city officials report.

City officials also say that due to the performance in the local economy that the transit fund has established spending reductions. The city is looking to make service reductions including cost per boarding, ridership per hour and by route and will review all performances of all Tempe’s six orbit routes, flash route, streetcars, express bus routes, and light rail.

If approved the new transit service changes would begin to take shape in Oct 2021.