TTC chair Karen Stintz is opposing plans for a 10-cent transit fare hike being floated by city staff in preliminary budget talks. The increase, penciled in as deliberations begin, would raise $36 million.

She has written city manager Joe Pennachetti, reminding him that the TTC agreed to raise fares by 5 cents in 2013 and again in 2014.

“I will not ask the TTC board to pass a budget with a fare increase above the rate of inflation and no increase to the TTC’s subsidy,” she said in a memo on Friday.

Although the 10-cent increase is only part of the fiscal outlook being circulated to council committees, Stintz said she wants to be clear that TTC riders have done their share and the TTC won’t agree to any service cuts. In fact, transit needs more support from the city, she told the Toronto Star.

In her letter to Pennachetti, she says, “We have reduced service levels, raised fares, ousourced operations, streamlined service delivery, improved cleanliness, developed a customer-service charter and continue to move more passengers than ever before.”

The TTC’s operating subsidy from Toronto has remained at $411 million for two years, accounting for about one-third of the $1.5 billion 2013 operating budget. Stintz would not specify how much more the TTC is seeking.

“We’ve had collective bargaining increases, we’ve had other expenses go up, so we’ve done things to offset those increases, but we can’t run the system unless we get support from the city in the way customers expect us to,” Stintz said.

“We need to get more support from the city than we’ve had in the past. The TTC has done its part to help the city balance its budget and now it’s time for the city to help the TTC and its riders,” she said.

Stintz said the next step is to make sure the city manager understands the TTC’s position, “so it doesn’t become a debate on the floor of council.”

This year, the TTC raised tokens to $2.65, while the monthly Metropass increased by $2.50 to $128.50, enough to raise an extra $18 million. Cash fares were held to $3. The 2012 increase was 10 cents.

In her memo, Stintz refers to a January council directing Pennachetti and the TTC CEO to “achieve a cost-revenue ratio more in keeping with the historic pattern of 68 per cent coming from the fare box and 32 per cent coming from the city and provincial contributions.”

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