The Crawford County Board of Supervisors voted to end funding support for the Scenic Mississippi Regional Transit (SMRT) bus program at the beginning of next year.
The resolution approved by the county supervisors cited increased costs and declining ridership as making "the continued commitment of funds by Crawford County impractical."
La Crosse County, which administrates the program, requested an increase in local commitment funding from the other three counties the bus program services, which also includes Vernon and Monroe.
Vernon County voted to cease funding the program, and Monroe is expected to follow suit in the near future. While the decisions are a series of heavy blows to the program, the SMRT bus's fate isn't decided yet. Sara Koopman, deputy county administrator for La Crosse County, said La Crosse "will now evaluate whether the service can continue without partner support."
According to numbers provided by La Crosse, the SMRT Bus program is expected to cost approximately $750,000 to maintain in 2026, including nearly $600,000 for the contract to operate the service, $150,000 to purchase a bus and $5,000 in other expenses.
There are four routes, each named with a color. The Red Route is the service in Crawford County. Based on numbers provided to Crawford County by La Crosse, the Red is the most expensive to maintain, with close to $220,000 in total costs this year.
The program receives revenue from federal and state grants, bus fares and local match commitments.
La Crosse requested a $73,574 local match from Crawford, drastically up from the amount in previous years (reportedly around $6,000). The price tag to other counties also increased substantially.
According to La Crosse County Administrator Janet Klekamp and Koopman, the requested increases in county match "reflect the rising cost of operating the SMRT system and the corresponding local match required under the federal and state funding structure."
Koopman also noted that costs to run the program have nearly doubled since 2023. Additionally, La Crosse County has reported that the program has resulted in a net loss of revenue each year since then. This year, the program is projected to break even based on numbers provided by La Crosse County, but that is only after La Crosse covers the program's estimated net loss of around $227,000.
The local match commitment proposed to the other counties stipulates La Crosse pay 10 percent of funding along with staff time to manage grant and contract requirements, while Vernon, Crawford and Monroe would be responsible for 90 percent of the funding for their corresponding service routes. For the Red route, the 10-percent portion for La Crosse is about $8,000. The sheet suggested the other counties could request reimbursement from the municipalities in their area to help with the cost.
One of the reasons given to cease funding the program is the decline in riders over the past few years.
Gary Koch, chair of the Crawford County Finance Committee, said the county's budget is "razor-thin," and the substantial increase in local contribution wasn't workable. "They're asking us to subsidize it more, but people aren't taking advantage of it. It's a service that has become unaffordable, really."
La Crosse County provided reports comparing the rider numbers from 2024 and 2025. The program experienced decreased numbers, with the exception of August, when the daily number of riders across all routes went up from 28 to 33. Looking at the entire year in aggregate, ridership fell from about 34 daily riders in 2024 to 29 in 2025. On the Red route, the average ridership decreased slightly from 6.62 to 6.16.
