Board to Catoe: Cut service to balance budget

According to this draft resolution, the WMATA Board will ask General Manager John Catoe to develop a plan to fill Metro’s $100 million budget gap primarily through cuts to transit service instead of jurisdictional increases or targeted revenues beyond the modest and already-planned fare increase.

The resolution provides the following guidance for the FY 2011 budget, which starts next July:

• Assume that jurisdiction subsidies will not likely increase.
• Assume a fare increase in line with inflation (approximately a 3% increase).
• Determine whether the FY 2011 budget can be balanced by funding preventive maintenance with capital funds, and assess how that affects the capital program.
• Propose how to keep MetroAccess costs from growing unsustainably.
• Recommend how to adjust rail and bus service levels to provide a balanced budget.

The last item is key. Once you’ve put fare increases above inflation and government assistance off the table, you have to find the money either through cutting service or some other Metro expense. Since last year’s budget was mainly balanced by cutting Metro administrative expenses, it seems unlikely that much more will be possible, leaving Metro’s staff in the uncomfortable position of recommending severe service cuts.

As we discussed earlier, we prefer a balanced approach, with the burden shared evenly between subsidies, fares and service cuts. We also strongly endorse measures to keep the growth of MetroAccess costs down, as well as working with local departments of transportation to speed up bus service, allowing fewer buses to provide the same level of service.

Last year, the Board took most options off the table early, putting the burden of all budget problems onto bus service cuts. That did force jurisdictions to increase subsidies, but also hit a small number of riders very hard and deprived everyone of an opportunity to debate the merits of various options. This year, with a much tougher budget gap, the Board shouldn’t be preemptively ruling anything out. It’s fine for the Board to ask staff to investigate certain scenarios, but they should keep all options open, including additional targeted revenue increases. They should also ask the General Manager to develop a menu of cuts beyond the minimum necessary to balance the budget, so they and the public can choose among different ways to spread the cuts around.