MARTA: Budget shortfall even worse than expected

Thanks to a steadily tanking economy, the deficit MARTA announced last month grew even worse this month.

In response, fare increases of 25 cents, higher parking fees and cutbacks as radical as eliminating weekend service are on the table.

“It’s bad,” said MARTA General Manager Beverly Scott. “We’re in one of those real periods of realignment.”

After new economic forecasts, MARTA officials said Monday they needed to reduce their expected revenues for this fiscal year by another $10 million. MARTA’s major source of funding is a penny sales tax in Fulton and DeKalb counties and the city of Atlanta.

The agency now expects a $57 million operating deficit this year, despite cutting $11 million in operational spending last month, said Davis Allen, MARTA’s assistant general manager of finance.

Over the next 10 years, the agency’s financial picture appears to be $588 million worse than thought last fall, officials said.

Scott said that MARTA needed a combination of measures to bring it onto a sound financial footing, including regional taxes under debate in the Legislature. She said she was glad that federal officials were talking about the need for an infrastructure stimulus package, and she hoped Georgia leaders would do something similar.

In the meantime, the news brings added urgency to public meetings starting Wednesday to discuss possible cutbacks. Among the measures, she said, are fare hikes, which Scott favors regardless of whether the economic situation improves. Fares have not been raised since 2001, she said, and an increase to $2 from the current price of $1.75 for a one-way trip might be approved in July and put into effect early in the fall.

POSSIBLE BELT-TIGHTENING MEASURES
• Raising the base fare by 25 cents, to $2
• Raising parking fees
• Closing station restrooms
• Reducing or halting weekend service
• Shrinking the bus service system
• Shortening the rail service day

PUBLIC MEETINGS:

• Wednesday, Jan. 7, 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., Decatur Library, 215 Sycamore St., Decatur

• Thursday, Jan. 8, 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., College Park Safety Complex, 3717 College St., College Park

• Saturday, Jan. 10, 10 a.m. to noon, MARTA Headquarters, Lindbergh Station, 2424 Piedmont Rd., Atlanta