Cincinnati Metro bracing for funding cuts; may reduce service - Triangle Business Journal:

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About $44.1 million – or about half of the bus service’xs $94.6 million operating budget – comes from the city of Cincinnati’s earnings tax, according to a Metro news releaserissued Tuesday. Based on the city’s projected earnings tax Metro anticipates a reduction ofbetween $2 milliojn and $3 million in that funding by 2010. And most Metrp rides are related to employment orpersonalo business. With unemployment hovering around 10 percent andbudgets tight, the agench said ridership is down. So Metr o also expects fare revenue to befrom $3 millioh to $5 million lower than budgeted.
In addition, Hamilton Counthy has notified Metro thatit can’ provide 2009 general fund dollars for Access servics for people with disabilities that goes beyond what the Americans with Disabilities Act requires. The countgy has provided funding for the additional servicer for thepast decade. That represents $233,00o0 in funding. The state of Ohio also has reducedf the 2009 amount Metro receives for elderly 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, increasecd fares and improved service We’ve dipped into our reserves and deferred critical capita projects like bus replacement. These steps boughrt us time, but we can’r overcome the additional lossesin revenue. We must reassesw the level of service that we can reasonably providd within the newbudget reality.
” Metrk will spend the summer analyzing optionxs and talking with employees and others to help the agencyy make decisions for the rest of 2009 and for the 2010 the news release “The financial model is Shazor said in the “We must right-size Metrko and provide the very best servic e we can within the resources we Metro also is strugglinyg with inadequate capital dollars to replace busesa beyond their useful 12-year life. Even with stimulus dollarsz awarded this year forcapital projects, the agency will not have enougjh money in 2010 to replace 69 buses that are beyonx their useful life, the release said. Transift systems in Dayton, Cleveland, Atlanta, St.
San Francisco, Portland, Boston, Louisville, Phoenix, Minneapolis, New York, Chicago and other major markets also have either implemente d or are consideringservice cuts, fare increaseds or both to address budget deficits since last fall, Metri said in the release. Metro, operated by the , providew bus service throughoutHamilton County, and portionxs of Butler, Clermont and Warren counties.