“Brother, Can You Spare A Dime” Asks Metro

Metro wants you.  Yes, you.  The service wants you to stop pinching your pennies.  It needs them more than you, at least according to the Examiner.

Metro banks on people not spending all the money on their farecards.  After a certain amount of time, the system considers unspent money as revenue.

Metro has been banking on about 5 percent of fares coming back to them as unspent revenue.  Well, with the economy the way it is, we're pinching our pennies, and reusing those cards to within an inch of their lives.  Combine that with the penetration of the plastic SmarTrip cards, and there aren't many dimes left over for our Metro Overlords.

What's that mean to them?  About $11 million less than they were expecting.

In a system that's facing a godawful $175 million budget deficit, every extra dime counts.

What's that mean to you?  A fare increase, potentially.  Metro staff is estimating that they need a 15 percent increase in fares across-the-board.

If you won't give them extra money one dime at a time, they'll find another way to suck it from your wallet, apparently.