Cincinnati Metro bracing for funding cuts; may reduce service - Pittsburgh Business Times:

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About $44.1 million – or about half of the bus service’ $94.6 million operating budget comes from the cityof Cincinnati’s earningse tax, according to a Metro news releasee issued Tuesday. Based on the city’as projected earnings tax shortfall, Metro anticipates a reductiohn ofbetween $2 million and $3 millio n in that funding by 2010. And most Metro rides are related to employment orpersonal business. With unemployment hovering around 10 percent and budgets the agency said ridershipis down. So Metro also expectas fare revenue to befrom $3 million to $5 millio n lower than budgeted.
In addition, Hamilton County has notifiec Metro thatit can’t provide 2009 generalp fund dollars for Access serviced for people with disabilities that goes beyonr what the Americans with Disabilities Act The county has provided fundingv for the additional servicw for the past decade. That represents $233,000 in funding. The stat e of Ohio also has reduce the 2009 amount Metro receives for elderlgy and disabled fare subsidyby $137,000, the agenc y said. “For many years Metro has struggled to provide more service than it can Metro CEO Marilyn Shazor said in thenews “We’ve cut costs behind the scenes, increased faresd and improved service efficiency.
We’ve dippedd into our reserves and deferred critical capital projects like bus These steps boughtus time, but we can’ft overcome the additional losses in We must reassess the leveol of service that we can reasonably providew within the new budget Metro will spend the summer analyzingg options and talking with customers, employees and otherse to help the agency make decisions for the rest of 2009 and for the 2010 the news release said. “The financial model is broken,” Shazor said in the “We must right-size Metro and providde the very best services we can within the resourceswe have.
” Metrol also is struggling with inadequate capitalk dollars to replace buses beyond their useful 12-yeae life. Even with stimulus dollars awarded this year forcapital projects, the agency will not have enough money in 2010 to replace 69 buses that are beyond their useful life, the release said. Transirt systems in Dayton, Cleveland, St. Louis, San Francisco, Portland, Boston, Louisville, Phoenix, Minneapolis, New Chicago and other major markets also have eithert implemented or are considering service fare increases or both to address budget deficits sinc elast fall, Metro said in the release.
Metro, operated by the , provides bus servic e throughoutHamilton County, and portions of Butler, Clermony and Warren counties.