Durango Transit faces a budget deficit of about $2 million in 2028 if it does not identify and secure new sources of funding.
Transportation Director Sarah Hill delivered a presentation on the state of public transportation services at a study session earlier this month where she emphasized how vital public transit is to residents.
“Transit service is more than a ride,” she said. “It’s about what the ride makes possible for people in Durango. That’s jobs, health care, housing, affordability, education and independence. Transit allows everyone access to a full life regardless of whatever resources they have or the level of physical mobility that they may be dealing with.”
Durango Transit provided just over 470,000 rides in 2025, she said. According to a 2025 ridership survey, 64% of riders depend on public transit to get around because they don’t have access to vehicles.
Forty-four percent of riders earn $25,000 a year or less, she said. Fifty-seven percent of riders take the bus every day. Ninety percent of riders are Durango or La Plata County residents.
She said people aged 60 years and older make up 23% of riders. Another 23% of riders are people living with disabilities.
Fort Lewis College students are an important rider demographic as well; Durango Transit provided students with 21,924 rides last year.
Overall, riders rated their satisfaction with Durango Transit at 8.68 out of 10.
Hill said Durango Transit currently offers bus service seven days a week from 7 a.m. to midnight, including DuranGo on-demand microtransit. It services four routes across city limits and provides door-to-door paratransit for seniors and people living with disabilities.
The city also provides special shuttle services for community events such as Snowdown and Fourth of July celebrations, and for an emergency warming center when the weather calls for it, she said.
“We also provide special services for community groups such as after-school transportation and Adaptive Sports Group events, transportation to the emergency warming center, things of that nature,” she said.
Those services, however, are at risk with a looming budget shortfall, she said.
The last time the city hit a transit budget shortfall was in 2017, she said, and that resulted in significant reductions to service.
The city eliminated its U.S. Highway 160/Crestview route. This time around, the city would likely cut its DuranGo microtransit program, she said.
Durango Transit is budgeted for $3.8 million in revenues this year, with most funding coming from – in the order of most to least – parking revenues from meters, permits and fines for citations, a 20% lodgers tax allocation and farebox revenues. Grants and contracts, such as with FLC, account for the remainder of revenues.
In contrast, Durango Transit has an expense budget of over $4.1 million this year, with the lion’s share dedicated to operating expenses.
“Transit is expensive to operate,” she said. “It will never pay for itself by nature. Every public transit agency in the nation is subsidized in some way in order to keep it public and accessible. But the outcome of transit brings value to the whole community.”
She said the city is looking to councilors for direction on where to obtain new funding. Other sources considered are:
- The 2005 half-cent sales tax.
- Parking rate increases.
- Expanding parking enforcement to evenings and weekends.
- An increased lodgers tax allocation.
- Marijuana sales tax.
- Increased parking fees.
Hill said the sales tax was on the “short list” for possible funding sources, but it is being used for other important projects. The fund was extended by voters in April 2025 to support the construction of a new joint city hall and police department.
She said many of the other options are unpopular with residents.
The last time the city increased parking citation fees was during the previous budget deficit in 2017.
“It was not popular then. It will probably not be popular in the future,” she said.
City Council explored the idea of expanding parking to evenings and weekends in 2024 – and that conversation “didn’t generate a lot of traction just based on community feedback,” she said.
The city increased its lodgers tax allocation to public transit in 2021 when it increased its lodgers tax rate from 2% to 5.25%, she said. That now nets transit funding to the tune of about $650,000 annually.
She said the community rejected a proposed marijuana tax increase when it was considered several years ago, and such a tax hike would be unlikely to generate significant funding if imposed today.
“Increased fees was a recommendation from the previous Multimodal Advisory Board,” she said. “That didn’t lead to any direction from council, but it proposed considering things like linkage and impact, unoccupied building, unimproved lot fees, things like that.”
She said the city already receives the maximum allocation of state and federal grants. While the city will continue to pursue grant opportunities, grants are not a long-term solution.
Finally, she said, it is unlikely the city could establish significant community partnerships to generate additional funding in order to satisfy the $2 million annual shortfall by the time Durango Transit hits the red in 2028.
“We don’t have solutions at this point, but would look to council for direction and (the city manager), of course, what opportunities we can compete for,” she said.
cburney@durangoherald.com
