During the past year, several articles have appeared in the News-Gazette regarding the opposition of residents in Savoy to incorporation in the Mass Transit District (MTD) of Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. The articles of this mainstream newspaper have presented primarily the opinions of residents who are hostile toward incorporation. The opinions of people who support Savoy's incorporation into MTD have not been presented adequately in these articles. This commentary is intended to rectify this shortcoming by presenting various reasons why Savoy should be incorporated.

First of all, many residents of the Champaign-Urbana area are dependent to some extent on MTD for transportation services. This includes many senior citizens, persons with disabilities, college students, children, adults with suspended driver's licenses, and poor people who are unable to afford a car. This probably describes one-third of the residents in the area and it's no use pretending that these people don't exist – they DO exist in our community and they require access to affordable and reliable transportation just like everyone else. By not allowing MTD services in Savoy, people in these disadvantaged groups are almost banned from entering Savoy. This could be considered a form of discrimination against these groups in favor of car-driving affluent adults. Too often in the past, many small towns and suburbs have undermined the ability of minorities, the poor, and other disadvantaged groups to participate in their communities by resorting to acts of overt discrimination (police harassment, lynch mobs, burning down houses) or by resorting to acts of covert discrimination (exclusionary zoning laws, blocking construction of subsidized housing, failure to provide necessary social services). The attempt to ban MTD services from Savoy can be viewed as an act of covert discrimination and a continuation of this historical pattern.

Another argument against incorporation is that it is undemocratic. This argument states that Savoy residents have the ultimate right to decide whether or not they will be incorporated into the Champaign-Urbana MTD, otherwise they are being subjected to taxation without representation. This argument is faulty because the board members of MTD are appointed to their positions by elected county officials. Residents of Savoy have as much influence over these board members as anyone else in the county. This is actually a dispute between different levels of democracy. It is by no means clear that local residents should have the final say on this matter. After all, if Savoy residents decide that they will secede from the State of Illinois or the USA in order to avoid paying state and federal income taxes, then they should be allowed to do this? This argument must be rejected if it stands in conflict with the greater public interest of democratic society at large. Surely it is in the interest of the greater society to have coherent planning of transportation services across broad geographic regions. This type of planning cannot be accomplished if it consists of piecemeal local responses to local concerns.

Some opponents of incorporation have stated that the need for MTD services in Savoy isn't there and that incorporation would produce "more empty buses." However, the bus ridership statistics during the past two decades reveal that the demand for MTD services in the Champaign-Urbana area has skyrocketed, greatly outpacing local population growth. Furthermore, the "empty buses" argument reveals a lack of familiarity with the hour-to-hour operation of bus routes. In a typical bus route, the bus fills up with people as it approaches the University of Illinois, downtown Urbana, or downtown Champaign. As the bus leaves these central areas and moves toward the periphery of Champaign-Urbana, it drops people off (typically at their homes) and becomes emptied of people. Thus, some suburban residents, living on the periphery of Champaign-Urbana or in Savoy, incorrectly conclude that the buses going pass their homes are under-utilized because they contain only "one or two people." However, that same bus, as it approaches one of the three central destination areas, becomes full of people, particularly during morning or evening rush hour. This is why the "empty buses" argument is less valid than it appears to some suburban residents.

Opponents to incorporation also complain about the imposition of higher taxes to fund MTD services – as though the residents of Savoy will be shouldering an unfair burden of taxes for services that they don't need. If anything, exactly the opposite is true – residents of Savoy are already paying LESS than their fair share of local taxes. For example, the Champaign-Urbana Sanitary District recently increased fees for sewage treatment in Champaign and Urbana in order to expand the sewage treatment facility for Savoy and SW Champaign. The city councils in Urbana and Champaign did not attempt to stop this fee increase in court, nor was there any attempt to leave the Champaign-Urbana Sanitary District. Imagine how much money residents in Savoy and SW Champaign would have to pay if they did not receive financial subsidies from the rest of the Champaign-Urbana community – their tax bills would be much higher than they are now. And yet, when it becomes Savoy's turn to help subsidize MTD services for the entire Champaign-Urbana community, the opponents of incorporation in Savoy have the nerve to complain that this imposes an "unfair burden" on them – never mind the substantial burden that they've imposed on the rest of us! Apparently, some Savoy residents and their city council have the odd expectation that tax money should always flow into their community, but never out of it. In other words, they think it is their God-given right to mooch off of everyone else! Perhaps they should change the name of their community to Moochville?

Another argument against incorporation by MTD is that city buses produce too much noise and air pollution. But what's the alternative? Currently, it consists of this: People driving everywhere in their personal motor vehicles. And don't those SUV's, pick-up trucks, and luxury sedans produce any noise or air pollution? Of course they do. Residents of Champaign-Urbana are subjected to the noise and air pollution of motor vehicles from Savoy all of the time. The motor vehicles of residents from Savoy also create traffic congestion in Champaign-Urbana and increase the risk of accidental death and injury. As Champaign, Urbana, and Savoy continue to expand their populations, these traffic-related problems will become worse in the future, increasing the need for MTD services. The problem of noise and pollution by city buses has been addressed to some extent already – many city buses already use biodiesel fuel, which burns more cleanly than conventional diesel fuel and produces less particulate matter. There has been some discussion of implementing a light rail system in Champaign-Urbana. If this type of transportation system is adopted, it will run on electricity and eliminate the emission of air pollution from within the city altogether. Furthermore, light rail systems can be designed that are more quiet than motor vehicles using the internal combustion engine. The reduction in noise, air pollution, and traffic congestion has the potential to make cities more livable and accessible to all residents, while decreasing our dependence on imported fossil fuels.