Breaking: ARC Steps In To Save MARTA
Decatur Metro | April 9, 2009First on DM
MJK writes in…
The ARC transportation policy committee just voted to explore the possibility of using up to $25 million of the remaining Federal Stimulus funds to plug the MARTA operating gap thus avoiding draconian service cuts. It will be [made] official during the May Board meeting.
Trying to confirm what stimulus money we’re talking about here. Is this the remaining mass transit funding from the federal stimulus package?
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MJK needs to cite his/her source. I find nothing on any of the creditable sites.
Here’s an AJC blurb. The idiotic legislature is still not excused, though.
MARTA may get $25M in stimulus funds
Money offered by regional officials could end plans for weekly service cuts
By ARIEL HART
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thursday, April 09, 2009
MARTA won’t have to shut down one day a week if plans launched by regional officials Thursday work out.
A committee of the Atlanta Regional Commission on Thursday recommended that ARC divert up to $25 million in stimulus funds to MARTA to meet operating shortfalls. The money had been intended for long-needed metro Atlanta transportation projects.
MARTA has $65 million in capital reserves, but under state law can’t use it to cover a $24 million funding gap for daily operations.
A bill that would have lifted the state restriction on operations spending did not pass in the Legislative session that ended Friday.
MARTA will still have to follow through with less draconian cuts, General Manager Beverly Scott said Thursday. They will likely include furloughs, raising employee payments for health care and stopping bus and train service at midnight.
The stimulus money will only help for the shortfall in the fiscal year that starts this summer. The following fiscal year, MARTA expects a bigger shortfall, officials said.
Thursday’s action must be voted on by the ARC board in the next few weeks.
See Steve…I was about to tell you that the source was good. Don’t non-credible sites deserve trust too?
I still looking for clarification about whether this is road transportation or mass transit stimulus money.
An ARC spokesperson told me there are still a lot of issues to be examined. A full ARC board vote is expected in May. For the next few weeks, the spokesperson said, ARC and MARTA staff are going to examine the transit agency’s financial situation and see how “up to” $25 million can be used for operational purposes.
Buried deep in the stimulus language I’m sure it mentions if the funds can be used for operation-budget shortfalls. My gut tells me it’s not allowed. But again, that’s my gut.
Hooray ARC! I hope their foresight is successful in overcoming the provincial ignorance and obstinance of our ineffective local and state representatives.
MARTA threatens, and some group with Taxpayer funds (eventually) jumps.
It’s a tired old model, no?
I would really like to have seen the state (and associated agencies) call their bluff. At least for a couple of weeks. Then we’d really know if a sthutdown/slowdown would be as catastrophic as they say.
One passenger/one potential passenger at a time — that’s how you would “see” the catastrophe of a MARTA shutdown/slowdown. Pick any of the MARTA proposed shutdown/slowdown proposals you want, and you will see the effects. Someone who works night shifts and weekends would be denied public transportation, and might lose their employment because they can’t get to work, or “on time.” Someone who needs to see a doctor on a Friday might have to reschedule a critical appointment, which might make a bad situation worse. Someone who wants to attend classes and seminars might decide not to, because of the lack of dependable daily and evening transportation. Someone who can’t afford a car may decide to enter that nightmare of paperwork and expenses anyway, thus diminishing funds that are usually spent for other family needs. And the traffic jams would continue and increase all around the Atlanta region. “Call their bluff” seems like a callous response to the damage that could be done for Atlanta area residents both in the short-term and the long-term. State taxes and federal funds allotted to the state should be spent proportionately according to population, not by geographic regions that are much less populated.
From the “Do as we say, not as we do” file:
http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/freshloaf/2009/04/15/anti-tax-protestors-urged-to-um-ride-marta/
This is stimulus money that is ostensibly “highway” money. All of the transit funds have already been alocated. Even if they hadn’t been allocated by ARC in their 3/20/09 administrative modification they couldn’t have been used for operating anyway. This money comes from the suballocation of road money that is directly programmed by the Metropolitan Planning Organization (ARC). This pot of stimulus money is akin to the STP category that comes from FHWA but is very flexible in how it is spent.
Preventatvie maintenance is considered a capital expenditure at the federal level but an operating expenditure at the local level. Thus, the preventative maintenance in the MARTA budget can be replaced with stimulus funding.