5-07-09, 10:40 am

The Atlanta Progressive News

(APN) ATLANTA – A coalition of transit riders, workers, and advocates called on Georgia lawmakers, Wednesday, May 06, 2009, to send financial help to MARTA so the struggling agency does not have to make drastic service cuts later this year.

'The State of Georgia set MARTA up to fail from the beginning,' Terence Courtney, Coordinator of Atlanta Jobs with Justice, said during a press conference at the Five Points Station. 'Now the chickens are coming home to roost.'

The Georgia General Assembly considered legislation, SB 120, this Session that would have lifted state-imposed rules on MARTA and allowed the agency to access funds from its own capital reserve to make up for a $65 million gap in its operating budget.

Lawmakers failed to pass the bill, leaving MARTA in a serious financial lurch and pushing top officials to consider making drastic cuts, including a one-day-a-week, system-wide elimination of all service.

During a similar press conference last month, progressive state lawmakers and other groups tried to put the ball in the business community's court, arguing service cuts could cost Atlanta money from the loss of tourism and conventions.

The coalition speaking Wednesday argued the cuts would greatly harm citizens who rely on the agency to get where they need to be.

'If they have to shut the buses down one day a week, I'm going to be stuck at home,' Cheri Mitchell, a disabled rider and President of People First, said.

Mitchell noted she would be unable to make doctor appointments or go shopping without the bus.

'It is a public policy failure that has led us here today,' Chioke Perry, Co-chair of the Atlanta Transit Riders Union, said, leading the crowd in chants of 'We need MARTA' and 'Show us the money Sonny.'

'The right to access mobility is a human right,' Perry added. 'We will not sit by and watch this city, this region, this state, use us as pawns.'

Many advocates and some state lawmakers, like State Sens. Nan Orrock (D-Atlanta) and Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta), have called on Gov. Sonny Perdue to call a special session of the Assembly, which provides no meaningful MARTA funding, so state lawmakers can get it right on transportation.

The governor remains cold to the idea so far. But there could be help on the way, courtesy of the stimulus package and the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC).

Last month, ARC signaled it might be willing to send $25 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds, currently earmarked for long-term transit projects in Atlanta, to MARTA.

As previously reported in Atlanta Progressive News, the agency is set to receive $7 million from ARRA eventually. This, combined with $25 million from ARC, while helpful, would only take care of roughly half the operating gap.

'While MARTA is not perfect, it is all we have and we need to save it,' Rebecca Ramage-Tuttle, President and CEO of Disability Link, said Wednesday.

Most of the agency's funding comes from taxes raised in Fulton and DeKalb Counties. The poor economy has pushed those revenues lower. This, along with the lack of state funding, has sent MARTA officials scrambling to make ends meet.

Proposed changes include: a hiring freeze, increasing the healthcare contributions required of non-represented employees, reducing other than personnel expenses such as advertising and travel, raising the fare from $1.75 to $2.00, raising parking fees by $1 at nine stations, reducing bus service by 4 percent, stopping trains at midnight and increasing the wait times by up to five minutes, and deferring merit-based increases for non-represented employees.

In an April 6 press release in which it too called for a special session of the Assembly, MARTA said it had identified nearly $288 million of the $442 million that is needed to fill the budget gap through fiscal year 2012.

'Without the ability to access the capital funds, we will be forced to make such drastic cuts that greatly impact the economic vitality and quality of life in our region and state,' Michael Walls, Chairman of the MARTA Board of Directors, said in the April 6 release. 'Without access to this funding, we will essentially sever a critical economic engine in our state and no doubt send our economy into an even greater hole.'

'MARTA is simply requesting access to funding that already exists within our capital budget in order to maintain a reasonable level of service that will get us through the economic tsunami we have all had to deal with,' Walls added.

For now, MARTA officials are waiting to make any decision on cuts until ARC meets June 10 to make a decision on the $25 million. After that, MARTA is expected to meet to decide the next step.

--Jonathan Springston is a Senior Staff Writer for The Atlanta Progressive News and is reachable at jonathan@atlantaprogressivenews.com.