MARTA to face drastic cuts after bill stalls

MARTA officials are bracing for drastic service cuts, after the General Assembly failed to pass legislation that would free up the agency’s access to its own money.

Shortly after the Legislative session ended at midnight Friday, MARTA General Manager Beverly Scott sat, exhausted and dejected, with her team of lobbyists.

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“It’s Armageddon,” Scott said. “That’s what it is. My board’s going to have some very difficult decisions in front of them.”

Scott said that in order to fill an immediate gap of more than $20 million, her board would have to decide among severe options. One is stopping all MARTA service one day a week, probably Fridays.

A majority of MARTA’s funding comes from a sales tax levied in Fulton and DeKalb counties. With the faltering economy those revenues have tanked.

In Senate Bill 120 MARTA wasn’t asking for new money from the state, though advocates say it will need it.

Instead, the bill would have lifted a state restriction on how MARTA can use money it already gets. MARTA must spend half its revenues on capital expenses, as opposed to operating the system. That means it can’t touch $65 million it has sitting in capital reserves.

The measure passed the Senate, then surfaced in different bills as it got caught up in political wrangling over other transportation funding proposals. The House passed a bill that would have eased the restriction to 40 percent, but to do that House members stripped out a bill that the Senate wanted.

Scott put the failure down to “high politics,” not policy opposition. “It wasn’t about MARTA,” she said.

Transit riders are the ones who will pay first, and then the businesses where they work and shop, she said.

“It’s especially astounding in these economic circumstances,” said Lee Biola, president of Citizens for Progressive Transit. “It will have real personal consequences for people who ride MARTA.”

Scott said the MARTA board would make a final decision in June, and the cuts should be in place by September.