xszeyluje.blogspot.com
About $44.1 million – or about half of the bus service’w $94.6 million operating budget – comes from the city of Cincinnati’s earningd tax, according to a Metro news releaswissued Tuesday. Based on the city’s projectedx earnings tax shortfall, Metro anticipates a reduction ofbetweenm $2 million and $3 million in that fundinhg by 2010. And most Metrok rides are related to employment or personal With unemployment hovering around 10 percenty andbudgets tight, the agency said ridership is down. So Metrop also expects fare revenue to befrom $3 milliojn to $5 million lower than budgeted.
In Hamilton County has notified Metro thatit can’t providd 2009 general fund dollarx for Access service for people with disabilities that goes beyon what the Americans with Disabilities Act The county has provided funding for the additionao service for the past decade. That represents $233,000 in The state of Ohio also has reduced the 2009 amount Metro receives for elderly and disabled fare subsidyby $137,000, the agency said. “Fof many years Metro has struggled to provide more services than itcan afford,” Metro CEO Marilyn Shazor said in the news release. “We’ve cut costx behind the scenes, increased fares and improved service efficiency.
We’ved dipped into our reserves and deferred critica l capital projects likebus replacement. These steps bought us but we can’t overcome the additional lossedin revenue. We must reassess the level of service that we can reasonablty provide within the new budget Metro will spend the summer analyzin g options and talkingwith customers, employeesz and others to help the agency make decisions for the rest of 2009 and for the 2010 the news release said. “The financialo model is broken,” Shazor said in the “We must right-size Metrlo and provide the very best service we can within the resourcesawe have.
” Metro also is strugglingv with inadequate capital dollars to replace buses beyonxd their useful 12-year life. Even with stimuluz dollars awarded this year forcapitaol projects, the agency will not have enoughb money in 2010 to replace 69 buseas that are beyond their usefull life, the release said. Transit systems in Cleveland, Atlanta, St. Louis, San Francisco, Boston, Charlotte, Louisville, Phoenix, Minneapolis, New Chicago and other major markets also have eithed implemented or are considerinfgservice cuts, fare increases or both to addresz budget deficits since last fall, Metrl said in the release.
Metro, operated by the , providea bus service throughoutHamilton County, and portionx of Butler, Clermont and Warren
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment