Expiring exemption may impact transit maintenance

By Zoe Sullivan

Contributing Writer

The Federal Transit Authority gave hurricane-affected areas like New Orleans an exemption for the required local funding match in 2005. Now, six years later, that exemption is expiring, and that means that the Regional Transit Authority (RTA) is going to have a new strain on its budget. According to Justin Augustine, Chief Executive Officer of the RTA, the loss will cost his organization 35 percent of its current funding because of decreases in ridership and population. The local match required for fiscal year 2011 would have been $3,634,900, and based on current figures, it is projected to be $3,385,000 in 2012. But, Augustine says, the crunch won’t affect projects to expand the system that are currently underway, such as the Loyola Avenue and St. Claude Avenue streetcar lines. The Loyola Avenue initiative is funded by a federal grant that invests in transit as a vehicle for economic development, and the St. Claude line is fully funded by a local bond.

Where the squeeze will be felt, though, is in maintenance. Augustine told The Louisiana Weekly, “Out of 540 employees, our total maintenance staff is about 183 people total.” These workers do everything from replacing the cross ties in the street car tracks to changing tires on the buses and repairing the RTA’s garages. Asked whether some workers may be laid off as a result of the financial change, Augustine said: “The first thing is to see what the negative impact is on the operations. Our priority is to maintain service flow. Labor is our largest line item in our operating budget, so if we lose money it’s going to affect our ability to maintain our workforce.”

Last week, two public meetings were held on streetcar construction. One was conducted in the Marigny and the other at the Convention Center. In both cases, audience members were struck by the openness of the RTA to modify its current plans. In the Marigny meeting, Augustine said that he was open to working with residents and community groups to obtain permission for the proposed St. Claude streetcar line to cross the Public Belt railroad tracks at Press Street and to continue down to Poland Avenue.

Professor James Amdal of the University of New Orleans Transit Institute attended both events. “It was phenomenal. That was most non-combative RTA that I’ve seen, ever,” Amdal told The Louisiana Weekly. He also remarked, however, that in order to really grow and operate effectively, the RTA will have to make changes. According to Amdal, developers who participated in a UNO research project feel that “…the RTA has really got to get smart, and they’ve got to change the perception that lots of people have, which is that they’re not dependable and, therefore, that we just can’t afford to use them, which is an unfortunate situation.”

Asked about the upcoming loss of funds due to the expiration of the Federal Transit Authority exemption, the Mayor’s Office said that the city has “a good relationship with our [Congressional] delegation.” This has been helpful, according to the press office, in securing federal transit grants. No plans beyond this, however, are being made to compensate for the loss of the FTA exemption. The RTA received $48.7 million from the city last year as a result of the allocation of one percent of the city’s sales tax that is allocated to transit. This allocation was voted into effect by public referendum in 1985.