A Baton Rouge state lawmaker has prefiled a bill for the upcoming regular Legislative session that, if passed, would give the Capital Area Transit System Board of Commissioners the autonomy to make rate and route changes without having to get the approval of the Baton Rouge Metro Council.
House Bill 159 by state Rep. Patricia Haynes Smith, D-Baton Rouge, would allow the CATS board to be the final hurdle for the transit system to raise fares, rental fees and other transportation charges, as well as change bus routes and schedules.
The bill is similar to one then-Rep. Regina Barrow tried to pass in 2012, House Bill 629, but that bill never made it out of committee. Barrow’s bill prohibited the CATS board from raising rates more than 25% every 12 months; Smith’s bill does include such a provision.
Multiple attempts to reach Smith for comment before this afternoon’s deadline were unsuccessful.
Donna Collins-Lewis, who represents District 6 on the Metro Council member and is a past CATS board president, says the board supports the move because she cannot think of another board that has to get approval from the council the way the CATS board does.
“It’s something from a board standpoint that we’ve been trying to get done,” Collins-Lewis says.
Attempts to reach Jim Brandt, president of the CATS board, were also unsuccessful.
CATS spokeswoman Amie McNaylor says the Metro Council would still have some oversight if the bill passes, as it would still appoint members to the board. The bill would just eliminate an extra step in the process, McNaylor says, before adding that CATS would still publish public notices and hold public meetings to get public input on any proposed changes.
McNaylor adds the bill would make the CATS board structure similar to the Regional Transit Authority in New Orleans. An RTA spokeswoman was not immediately available this afternoon for comment.
The regular session begins Monday. The bill has been referred to the House Committee on Municipal, Parochial and Cultural Affairs, of which Smith is a member.
—Ryan Broussard
