To the editor:

While at a meeting a couple weeks ago, I heard very compelling arguments for the need to gain revenue from the sales tax proposal Island Transit is requesting.

Island Transit could actually be in the hole a whopping $53 million in 13 years if the transit instituted a fare-based system because of the hidden costs.

The transit system was able to calculate how many more seconds would be needed for each rider to pay. Those seconds added up to minutes, which in turn would demand the need for more buses and thus drivers to accommodate the riders and ensure they meet the ferry and other places along the way. There was also the expense to purchase and maintain the cash machines.

So many residents as well as tourists depend on Island Transit to get to work and to shop. People who cannot afford a car depend on the bus to get to their jobs, the grocery store, doctor appointments and to the hospital when tests and such are needed. Also, on snowy days taking the bus is so much safer and less stressful than driving in the snow.

Many ferry riders utilize the bus to get to work off-island. If they drove on the ferry, the line would be impossibly long, thus causing hours of wait time.

I hope your readers will appreciate the need to add three cents on every $10 they spend. Since this tax is not based on property, people on fixed income will not see their property tax increased.

We don’t know the future of gasoline prices that could eventually prohibit people from driving their cars, so it behooves us now to vote for the 0.3 percent increase on sales tax.

Mary Brencick

Greenbank