In a recent interview with the AJC, MARTA CEO Beverly Scott said – among many other things – this…

The legislation, HB 277, says none of the new tax money can be used to pay for operations of the current MARTA system. It is morally wrong to have MARTA singled out to be treated differently than any other transportation entity in the state. It is also shortsighted. This is a $6.4 billion, largely public investment in a core public transit system. Why would we want to starve the heart of what is the regional system? It is absolutely shortsighted and ill-advised. If we don’t fix those flaws, it will cause significant problems for the entire region when we request funding at the federal level for transportation.

Now I’m not the kind of person who’s not all that comfortable with throwing morality onto an argument.  I tend to believe that transportation issues are complex enough without deeming myself the arbiter of right and wrong at the outset.

Now “shortsighted and ill-advised” – that’s something I can get on broad with. (Oh, the wonderful puns.)

I think I got so dang excited about the transportation bill getting passed at all, that I didn’t give the exclusion of funding for existing MARTA infrastructure enough time in the spotlight.

To quote Scott, “Why would we want to starve the heart of what is the regional system?”  For better or worse, MARTA must be the center of any future Atlanta transportation system that doesn’t take place behind an odometer.  Anything else is a complete waste of a $6.4 billion investment.  Excluding it from funding does nothing but weaken the core of the very system you’re trying to enhance and expand.

But of course, this probably isn’t so much about future planning and rational argument as it is about “politickin'”.

In trying to persuade committee members at the state capitol to release some of the $65 million set aside for “capital improvements”, MARTA Gen. Manager, Beverly Scott talked of cutting service completely on certain days of the week  if the money wasn’t made available.

Undeterred by the possible catastrophe foretold by Scott , some committee members took the opportunity to question MARTA’s “pre-market collapse” pay raises and some complicated “back-lease” bank deals that the agency got involved with the help of the feds.

20/20 hindsight sure is great, isn’t it legislators?  Personally, I like to use it when contemplating your own $2-$3 billion deficit.

Let’s say it together now, “What were you thinking!?”

Has anyone else been following this MARTA $60 million budget deficit story?

Over the past week or so, we’ve gotten a nice, healthy taste of the impending crisis for MARTA, thanks to its heavy reliance on the 1 cent sales tax (it accounts for 52% of revenue).  As people buy less, MARTA receives less tax money.  This isn’t an uncommon way of funding public transit – this document I discovered thru Terminal Station shows that a 1 cent sales tax is the majority funding mechanism for most city’s around the country.

But what to do when the market collapses? (We could ask this same question about 401k dominated retirement plans!)

Who foots the bill for public transit when stops growing?  In ultra-dense areas, like NYC, where public transit is widely supported, legislators are thinking about implementing a payroll tax.  But that would never fly in Atlanta/GA.  So who will save public transit in car-smooching cities like Atlanta, which provide questionable support for transit even in boom times?

At a Tuesday meeting of MARTA minds, general manager Beverly Scott announced that it would do whatever it could to reduce costs, including a hiring and salary increase freeze,  freeing up some funding tagged for construction only, and reversing a prohibition on eating, which could invite food vendors (and their fees) into the stations.  But that won’t do much to ease the pinch.  Without some sort of outside help, MARTA predicts a “draconian” reduction in service and a huge ticket price increase in the coming year.

So, who will come to MARTA’s aid?  The state?  Yeah right.  The feds?  Maybe.  But every other transit org in the U.S. will be clamoring for the same help…so MARTA will be just one beggar among the masses.

So how big is the nation’s purse when it comes to its commitment to public transit?  Are the struggles of the U.S. auto industry a sign that we’ve moved beyond the automobile era and have turned a corner into a century where the auto lobby doesn’t rule supreme on Capitol Hill?  Or is this just a hiccup for the auto industry?

Once we get the answer to “Who Will Save MARTA?” we should have a much clearer idea.