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O.C. Transit
Budget Has Tough Year Ahead
Adding to fiscal gloom, officials say, is a failed
bid for $200 million to fix a street for light rail.
By Dan Weikel, Times
Staff Writer
Orange County transportation officials predicted
Monday that they will face serious budget challenges
in the year ahead with shortages of government
funding, looming labor issues and soaring demands by
the disabled for transit service.
"We have a tough budget year in front of us,"
Arthur T. Leahy, the Orange County Transportation
Authority's chief executive officer, warned board
members at their regular meeting. "There are a
number of very large financial issues."
If funds are not found
to provide more legally mandated service for the
disabled in fiscal year 2004-05, OCTA officials say,
they might have to scale back conventional bus
service around the county to free up funds.
Also, officials anticipate that the agency's 1,140
bus drivers will ask for more pay, medical coverage
and retirement benefits when contract talks begin in
late March. Coach operators now make up to $20 an
hour.
Adding to the agency's difficulties, OCTA disclosed
Monday that it has failed to obtain $200 million in
competitive federal funding for the $238-million
Bristol Street widening in Santa Ana, a cornerstone
of the authority's CenterLine light-rail project.
The setback will force OCTA to compete for limited
state funds at a time that the Schwarzenegger
administration is cutting transportation money. Leahy
said the failure to land federal funds for CenterLine
will not affect the agency's 2004-05 budget, but
could affect later ones.
Leahy expressed concerns about the 2004-05 budget
just before the board of directors unanimously
approved a comprehensive business plan for it. The
document is a set of guidelines to help the agency's
staff implement OCTA's 10 strategic goals for the
decade.
Among the priorities are widening the Garden Grove
and Riverside freeways, improving local streets and
expanding transit services: Those include buses, the
Metrolink commuter rail system and CenterLine, the
proposed trolley line from John Wayne Airport to the
Santa Ana train station.
Monday's vote included approvals of the funding plan
for the $1-billion CenterLine project and the related
Bristol Street widening. County supervisors and OCTA
board members Bill Campbell and Chris Norby, both
CenterLine opponents, voted against the light-rail
funding plan.
The board also recommended that $170 million from
Measure M supplemental sales tax revenue be
transferred to the Garden Grove Freeway project to
make up for the loss of state funds previously
earmarked for it.
Measure M is the county's 0.5% sales tax to pay for
transportation projects. Both a citizens advisory
panel set up by the initiative and the OCTA board
must approve adding the Garden Grove Freeway to the
list of projects eligible for Measure M funding.
Leahy said the agency will continue to seek state
funding for the project.
He emphasized that the long-neglected freeway is one
of the most important transportation projects in
California.
OCTA will need to increase its $800-million annual
budget by at least $11 million for 2004-05 to pay for
more transit services for the disabled and more
health care and retirement benefits for bus drivers,
Leahy said. The figure does not include amounts to
compensate for inflation on any expenditures or any
increase in driver pay.
Leahy cautioned that the numbers are very preliminary.
The process of drafting the 2004-05 budget begins in
April.
"Next year is going to be a tight one,"
said OCTA board Chairman Greg Winterbottom, who
proposed a retreat for directors to discuss the
budget situation. "There is a dearth of money
and a surfeit of need."
The authority predicts that the demand for transit
services for the disabled will rise from about 1.1
million boardings a year in 2004-05 to 1.33 million
by 2007-08, about 23%.
OCTA provides special vans and buses for the disabled
through bus companies.
The demand is expected to jump 16% in the next fiscal
year, the largest one-year increase in demand for bus
service from the disabled during that four-year
period. The annual costs are expected to escalate
rapidly, from $21 million today to $24 million in
2004-05 and $30 million in 2005-06.
"It is becoming increasingly difficult to
provide additional resources for handicapped services
without potential impacts to fixed route service,"
the comprehensive business plan states.
The authority wants to increase services for the
disabled about 8% every year for the next four years
to meet demand. At the same time, officials will
explore ways to provide that service without
compromising routes serving the non-disabled.
Among other things, Leahy said, the agency will seek
cheaper contracts with bus companies that serve the
disabled with small vehicles.
"I would not anticipate any cuts in bus routes
in the coming year," Leahy said. "We are
trying to get ahead of the problem."
The chief executive said he was disappointed that
OCTA did not obtain the $200 million in federal funds
for Bristol Street. He said the agency will keep
seeking the funds.
OCTA officials said the agency has a chance to get $140
million in state funds at best, about $60 million
less than the federal request.
"Whether the money is going to be there is just
speculation at this point," Norby said. "When
funded, there might only be $140 million. It could be
less."
Despite the financial challenges ahead, Leahy said,
OCTA plans to expand conventional bus service 1% to 2%
next year. Measure M funds will be used to widen
Orange County's northernmost three miles of the Santa
Ana Freeway, he said, and improvements will continue
on the Garden Grove and Riverside freeways.
"Granted, we are in a tough economy," Leahy
said. "But because of the wisdom of the voters
on Measure M and the strong Orange County economy, we
will probably have the strongest transportation
program next year of any county in the state."
