RENO — As the Regional Transportation Commission struggles with its own budget shortfalls, the transit agency board voted Friday to reduce services by up to 9 percent, possibly increase some fares for its Access riders in 2011 and flex $2.8 million from existing tax-generated funds.

“We have some financial challenges and it really begins with the revenue,” Tom Taelour, chief financial officer for the RTC, told the board members at their Friday meeting.

Taelour projected between a $21 and $25 million shortfall by 2015 if there are no service reductions or restructuring.

Staff recommended a full review of the RTC’s “operational structure, its service needs, capabilities and available resources.”

“I don’t see us growing in the next five years,” Taelour said.

As a result of the board’s vote, some of the shortfall could be funded by voter-approved road taxes. In both 2002 and 2008, local voters approved additional sales and fuel taxes to fund road projects. According to RTC staff reports, the agency is considering moving $2.8 million of those revenues to the public transit programs to keep them afloat.

“We are circumventing what the voters said,” said Ron Smith, an RTC board member and a Sparks city councilman. “They didn’t vote to flex this.”

However, board member Dave Aiazzi felt the money was going to a good cause. “Nobody wants to endanger the vulnerable,” Aiazzi said. “We have to provide both a roads system and a transportation system and we need to balance that. That’s people who just won’t be able to get where they need to be anymore.”

Eventually, the board voted 4-1 to flex the money over to the transit program for next year only. Board member and Washoe County Commission Chair David Humke voted against the proposal. While fee increases for riders were also a possibility Friday, none were approved. According to RTC officials, any fee increases for riders would require another public hearing that will be scheduled at a future date.

According to staff reports, a fare increase for the average bus rider is not an option the RTC is aggressively pursuing.

“With the unprecedented downturn in sales tax revenues, a fare increase at this time may not be worth pursuing for two reasons,” Taelour wrote in his staff report. “The first is that many passengers will look at the service reduction as getting less service for the same price and be resistant to ‘paying more for less.’

“A fare increase will raise revenue but will also discourage ridership, particularly in a down economy where more than half our ridership was for work purposes. As an example, for every 10 percent fares are raised, ridership falls approximately 4.3 percent,” Taelour added. However, route restructuring was an option. In RTC staff reports, more than 22 routes would be reduced and Sierra Sprit and RTC intercity services would be discontinued.

The RTC board will also have to discuss and finalize a proposed increase in Access fares, a transportation service that carries the disabled through their daily errands.

Fares for these riders would go up to $4, the maximum allowed by the Americans With Disabilities Act. The fares were raised to $3 in August 2009. For those who live outside the ADA zone, an area within a certain distance of city limits, fares are about $6.

A meeting room overflowing with many disabled anxiously awaited the board’s decision Friday. Many of them were blind.

“For myself, living outside of the ADA zone, it is almost impossible for me to get to work,” said Jeanine Mooers, president of the northern Nevada chapter of the National Federation of the Blind. “It is an important service to have to get around independently. Any further cuts are going to be detrimental.”

Mooers is legally blind.

Others who use Access, and many who simply rode the regular bus service, spoke against raising fees. In all, the board heard more than an hour of testimony on the issue.

Outside the meeting, Diedre Hammon and her daughter Brianna Hammon were giving away donuts and hot chocolate for those “too poor to afford the bus.”

“Remember that the best practices for those with disabilities are the best practices for us all,” she told the board.