Ledyard — The Town Council voted unanimously Wednesday night to end the town's subsidy to the South East Area Transit District bus service, or SEAT, pointing to a rise in the subsidy as evidence that costs were unfairly distributed across SEAT’s nine member towns.

The sticking point for the council was that the town's share of the subsidy was slated to grow from $9,717 per year to roughly $22,000 after SEAT's board of directors began exploring changing the local funding formula.

Councilors framed their vote as a call for SEAT to reorganize, suggesting that SEAT incorporate nonmember towns that benefit from SEAT’s service, such as North Stonington, and look for better ways to serve Ledyard. The vote comes as SEAT considers a number of service improvement plans, all of which would end service in town along Colonel Ledyard Highway leaving only one service schedule along Route 12.

“We’re not losing the service and that’s the odd thing about the issue,” Councilor Bill Saums said. “This is an objection from Ledyard of the way SEAT is structured, organized and charging for services. … it’s a call for a reorganization of the way they do business."

As Montville Mayor Ronald McDaniel, chair of SEAT Board of Directors explained, the proposed subsidy change came as a way of addressing a formula that some towns found unfair.

"Basically the formulas have never been kept up to date to keep past with the changes in routes," said Mayor Ronald McDaniel, who currently serves as the chair of SEAT's board of directors. "One of the routes was subsidized entirely by Foxwoods ... that really caused us to have a shortfall in our operating budget" after Foxwoods ended the subsidy.

Subsidies from municipalities make up eight percent of SEAT's $6.3 million operating budget, which is composed of federal and state funds, special funds such as subsidized bus runs, and revenue recovered at the firebox, with local subsidies covering the remaining shortfall. The change would make the subsidy represent even split of the service hours and service miles spent in a town, instead of just reflecting the number service hours spent in town.

Former mayor John Rodolico, whose term ended Monday and who served on SEAT's board of directors said he began looking into whether Ledyard's share of the subsidy was fair before SEAT considered the increase. He pointed to the town’s ridership numbers — 723 people took the bus from Ledyard in 2015, about 1.2 percent of SEAT’s total passengers — as evidence that the service doesn’t not provide as significant a benefit to the town as the subsidy would suggest.

"I had sent a letter to SEAT questioning our existing subsidy ... they do not see any way of rectifying this as part of the SEAT membership,” Rodolico said in an interview earlier this month.

A compromise to cover the cost divided the $17,000 shortfall across the the towns that were perceived to be paying less than their share of the local subsidy, which both Rodolico and McDaniel both voted against. However, it passed over their dissent 7-2.

McDaniel said that while he respects each municipality's ability to make their own decision, towns should be looking for more ways to fund public transportation, not less.

"It's certainly going to affect transit in southeastern Connecticut," he said of the vote.

n.lynch@theday.com

Twitter: @_nathanlynch