Valley Transportation Authority cuts $15M
The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority will reduce its operating budget $15 million next year and defer purchase of new buses as it continues to grapple with a $70 million budget deficit over the next two years.
Members of the board of directors of VTA — which provides bus, light rail and paratransit service throughout Santa Clara County — have already frozen hiring and instituted unpaid furloughs for employees, made service reductions and increased passenger fares as ways to deal with the elimination of state transit funding and downturn in the economy that has dramatically shrunk sales tax revenue.
At the same time, the transit district also got some good financial news, learning that the Federal Transit Administration has told
Congress the VTA's BART extension project will become eligible for $900 million in federal funds. Total cost of the 16-mile extension from the future Warm Spring BART station at the south end of Fremont to downtown San Jose and Santa Clara is $6 billion in 2008 dollars.
According to VTA, the extension will have a major economic impact on the region's future. They say by 2030, the completed project will generate an additional $11.4 billion in gross regional product and $3.3 billion in personal income, with 66 percent of those dollars remaining in Santa Clara County.
The earliest projection is that the extension will be completed by 2018 Online payday loans.
But in the short term, VTA's financial picture is not as rosy, making further immediate budget cuts necessary, according to agency leaders.
"VTA will draw down from our operating reserve, and has allocated 10 percent of our stimulus funds to help offset this deficit, however, these one-time funds can only provide a short term bridge," Michael Burns, VTA general manager said in a statement. "We need to find a more sustainable service model."
Besides the $15 million budget cut for the 2010-11 fiscal year, VTA will also defer purchase of Bus Rapid Transit, better known as BRT vehicles, using those funds instead for transit operations. The district didn't specify how much the purchase delay would save in the 2010-11 budget.
"By every account, recovery for the state's finances is a long time off and we must adapt to what may be a long period of scarcity," Sam Liccardo, VTA interim board chairman and a member of the San Jose City Council, said in a statement. "While we address the current fiscal shortfall, we also must move toward longer-term solutions in the coming months."
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