Following the Metro Council’s rejection Wednesday of proposed service cuts and fare hikes to the Capital Area Transit System, the bus system’s finance and executive committee spent this morning discussing options to fill its $1.2 million budget deficit. “We’re really, really under the gun,” says Isaiah Marshall, CATS board member. “Right now, everything is being discussed and nothing is off the table. There is no option we won’t continue to explore.” Along with looking into possible state and federal funding options, Marshall says the discussion this morning included looking at alternative options for service savings and fare hikes. “Nothing is official, but we are looking at the whole service to see if anything can be tweaked to save some money,” he says. “In my opinion there needs to be some kind of rate increase to help offset some of this. There can’t be any sacred cows.”
By state law, CATS must operate with a balanced budget. It’s current budget for 2011 is about $11.8 million, but that’s factoring in service cuts and fare hikes. Its 2010 budget was $13.3 million. CATS CEO Brian Marshall, no relation to Isaiah Marshall, was not available for comment. Brian Marshall has previously estimated CATS would run out of cash by October if the Metro Council rejected its recommendation of cutting two routes, eliminating weekend and holiday service, and raising various fares.
A motion to accept the recommendations did not gain majority support by the Metro Council. “Although the board didn’t see this as a viable option, no option that we present, because of the amount of the shortfall we’re facing, is going to be attractive,” Isaiah Marshall says. “But, basically, we’re kind of at square one again.” — Steve Sanoski
