Once again, CATS is talking about cutting services because revenues are down. The way I see it, it’s up to the city to come up with more money so that valuable transit services aren't cut. A transit system is a necessary public service — not a frill nor a business. No transit system pays for itself, nor, just like the police and fire department, should it be expected to. As we’ve written before, City Council should confirm its commitment to public transit and find a way to not only ditch the service-cutting idea, it should set up the system so it's guaranteed enough money to increase service around the city. Pay for it with a luxury-car tax and/or a gas-guzzler tax. Again, we’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Thinking of cutting bus service because sales tax revenue is down is like Duke Energy threatening to cut off electricity a couple of hours a day because its stock price has dropped. It’s high time local leaders look at good public transportation as a necessary public service, and work on that assumption in determining policy.