Metro Finances: Proposed Cuts Take Too Much from District

According to this presentation which will be discussed before Metro's Special Budget Committee, the previously discussed service cuts leave the District of Columbia with a $2.9M surplus at the end.

This means that the previously proposed service cuts to Metrobus and Metrorail affected the District of Columbia disproportionately through the funding formula. 

During the meeting Mr. Graham, Mr. Albert, Mr. Brown and Mr. Giancola, the District's representatives on the committee, should be asking questions about why the District should have service cut more than needed to keep their subsidy the same as last year, while other jurisdictions still need to give up more to balance the budget.

For reference, here are the other jurisdictions and the amount of additional service cuts to non-regional bus service needed to balance the budget:

Jurisdiction	Additional non-regional bus cuts (increases) needed to balance
DC	($2.9M)
Mongomery County	4.7
Prince George's	3.2
City of Alexandria	0.2
Arlington County	1.2
City of Fairfax	0.1
Fairfax County	1.0
Falls Church	0.0
Total	$7.4M

These numbers are the amounts of non-regional bus service that would need to be cut (or added) in order to balance each jurisdiction's Metro budget, after already taking into account the administrative changes proposed in January and the service cuts proposed earlier this month.  Non-regional bus lines are ones that don't cross jurisdictional boundaries.  For example the U8 (Capitol Heights to Benning Heights) in DC, the 18s (Orange Hunt) and 17s (Kings Park Express) in Virginia, and the R4 (Queen's Chapel Road) in Maryland bus routes.  Costs after subtracting fares for non-regional bus lines are paid for directly by the jurisdiction, rather than through the funding formula for rail or bus.  Rail's funding formula takes into account population and density, ridership, and number of rail stations.  Regional Bus's formula is based on population and density, service hours, the number of miles buses traveled, and ridership.  Paratransit is paid for by the rider's home jurisdiction.

From the table, any further cuts are likely to hit Montgomery and Prince George's Counties, while the District may be looking at improving service compared to the previous proposal.  WMATA's staff is proposing that service cuts be approved for public comment on March 5th, and that after reviewing public comments either in writing or at public hearings, that the Board approve any selected service reductions on April 23.  As always, more to follow.