RTA's board of trustees approved a slightly revised version of the budget it released in December, but could not change the most notable aspects: 12 per cent cuts in service, and as many as 185 jobs lost - effective April 4th.
RTA's $225 million operating fund is about 21 million dollars less than 2009's, but that includes ten million dollars in state and federal contributions that so far, have not been approved.
CEO and General Manager Joe Calabrese maintains the bus and route cuts, the jobs lost, and RTA keeping what had once been billed as a `temporary' fare increase to combat fuel costs... were all made necessary by the slumping economy.
JOE CALABRESE:
"There's less revenue coming in to the authority. With less revenue coming in, primarily in terms of sales tax because of the recession, we simply can't spend as much as we wanted to spend, or I think as many of our customers would like us to spend."
Sales tax makes up about 65% of the RTA budget, but the 2009 revenues were more than $17 million short of 2008's.
Calabrese hopes an economic rebound will not only place more job-bound passengers on busses and trains, but boost the taxes the authority receives from Cuyahoga County.
To add to its difficulties, the company continues negotiating an expired contract with transportation union workers, while the current contract with the Police Union, expires in less than two weeks.
The reconfigured budget left no room for pay increases to either bargaining unit.
It's also worth noting that ongoing major RTA projects at several sites around the county are being paid for by stimulus dollars, and will not be impacted by the reduced budget.
