Port Authority will not cut services, increase fares until 2012

Students won’t face more cuts to transit services many of them rely on, at least in the next… Students won’t face more cuts to transit services many of them rely on, at least in the next year.

The Port Authority passed its budget for the next year on Friday, which kept service, staffing and fares at the same level until next summer.

The board of the transit authority set the operating budget at $370.2 million beginning July 1, a 3.8 percent increase from last year. The budget will preserve fares and staffing levels through June 30, 2012.

But after that date, Port Authority riders might see more drastic cuts than the 15 percent service reduction earlier this year. Heather Pharo, a spokeswoman for Port Authority, said that if the state does not provide reliable and dependable funding that grows with inflation, the deficit in 2013 will be at least $30 million and require even deeper cuts to the budget than the March cuts.

Disgruntled customer and recent Pitt graduate Mary Jessell is upset about the March cuts and hopes that more aren’t on the way.

“They already cut all of the bus lines,” Jessell, who lives by Carnegie Mellon, said. “I don’t have a bus to my house anymore, so I have to walk three-fourths of a mile to get to Pitt next year when I come back, so as long as they don’t cut anymore bus lines … I’m just hoping they will make changes within that year-span.”

Pharo said that the city could be looking at service cuts that are much larger than those from March if the funding crisis isn’t resolved by next year.

“Basically we are very grateful for the emergency funding … however, Band-Aid solutions don’t work,” Pharo said.

Last year, the Department of Transportation rejected a Pennsylvania plan to set tolling on Interstate 80, to fund the Port Authority, leaving the agency in a funding limbo that the legislature has not since resolved.

To keep the fares and employment steady for 2012, Port Authority used $40 million in one-time revenues from reserve funds and the emergency funds given to them by former Gov. Ed Rendell in December. Only $10 million in reserve funds remain.

“Spending that money is what is enabling us to keep service throughout the rest of [fiscal year] 2012,” Pharo said.

Pharo couldn’t say whether Port Authority would use the remainder of the emergency funds toward next year’s deficits.

“We are really concentrating on advocating for funding,” Pharo said. “Certainly, the deficit we would see for [fiscal year] 2013 would be more than $10 million. It would be at least $30 million, so we are really concentrating on funding.”

Changes in that span of time could come from Gov. Tom Corbett’s new Transportation Funding Advisory Commission. The 36-person commission is charged with recommending how the state can finance mass transit and the roads and bridges it needs to build or repair. It will explore ways to pay for the $3.5-billion deficit facing transportation in Pennsylvania.

The commission is set to make recommendations starting Aug. 1.  

Port Authority CEO Steve Bland is energized by both the commission and the interest revolving around the budget.

“We’re very encouraged by the widespread interest in protecting our transportation programs in Pennsylvania and Gov. Corbett’s initiative to seek potential solutions through the Transportation Funding Advisory Commission,” Bland said in a statement.

“There’s a window of opportunity now for leaders across the state to finally resolve the transportation funding crisis,” Bland said. “Collectively, we can establish a more reliable and sustainable funding source to ensure public transportation continues benefiting riders in the Pittsburgh region and throughout the state.”