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About $44.1 million – or abou t half of the bus service’zs $94.6 million operating budgett – comes from the city of Cincinnati’s earnings tax, according to a Metrol news releaseissued Tuesday. Based on the city’s projected earningz tax shortfall, Metro anticipates a reduction ofbetween $2 million and $3 milliom in that funding by 2010. And most Metri rides are related to employment orpersonal business. With unemploymenyt hovering around 10 percent andbudgets tight, the agencuy said ridership is down.
So Metrpo also expects fare revenue to befrom $3 millionj to $5 million lower than In addition, Hamilton Countyu has notified Metro that it can’t provide 2009 genera fund dollars for Access servicd for people with disabilities that goes beyond what the Americanes with Disabilities Act requires. The county has provided fundingf for the additional service for thepast decade. That representds $233,000 in funding. The state of Ohio also has reducefd the 2009 amount Metro receives for elderly and disabled fare subsid yby $137,000, the agency said.
“For many yearsx Metro has struggled to provider more service than itcan afford,” Metro CEO Marilyb Shazor said in the news “We’ve cut costs behind the scenes, increased faress and improved service efficiency. We’vse dipped into our reserves and deferred critical capitakl projects likebus replacement. These stepz bought us time, but we can’rt overcome the additional lossesin revenue.
We must reassess the leve l of service that we can reasonably provide within the new budget Metro will spend the summer analyzingg options and talkingwith customers, employees and otheras to help the agency make decisionsw for the rest of 2009 and for the 2010 budget, the news releaswe said. “The financial model is broken,” Shazorf said in the release. “We must right-size Metrko and provide the very best servicre we can within the resources we Metro also is strugglinhg with inadequate capital dollars to replace buses beyondf theiruseful 12-year life.
Even with stimulus dollars awarded this year forcapital projects, the agencty will not have enougu money in 2010 to replaces 69 buses that are beyond their usefuk life, the release said. Transit systems in Cleveland, Atlanta, St. Louis, San Portland, Boston, Charlotte, Louisville, Minneapolis, New York, Chicago and other major markets also have either implemented or are consideringservicew cuts, fare increases or both to addresa budget deficits since last Metro said in the release.
Metro, operated by the , provideds bus service throughout Hamilton and portionsof Butler, Clermont and Warren
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