Paying for the Streetcar

I hear this argument against the streetcar a lot these days: "How can we justify spending money on a streetcar system during these hard economic times?" or even more often "the streetcar will never be able to pay for itself each year"
Well, this post at the Cincy Streetcar Blog does a nice job explaining how the city plans on funding the streetcar on a year to year basis. It turns out that there are lots of ways for the city to easily raise enough money each year to cover its operating costs. Additionally building the streetcar will not take any money away from the city's operating budget. As stated many times before this system will not raise taxes. Even more importantly, once its built it will generate money for the city's operating budget by attracting more tax paying businesses, residents and visitors each year.

So 3 simple, but very important points to remember and tell your friends who aren't yet streetcar believers:
1. Building the streetcar will not raise taxes or take money away from other essential city operations.
2. Operating the streetcar year to year will not raise taxes or take money away from essential city operations.
3. The streetcar will actually generate more money for the city to use for other essential city operations.