St. Louis Metro approves FY 2011 budget

The Metro Board of Commissioners for the St. Louis area approved an operating budget of $232.4 million for Fiscal Year 2011 that includes funds to restore transit services that were cut in 2009. The budget also includes freezes on salaries and hiring and reductions to expenditures across the board.

Metro
President and CEO Robert J. Baer told the Board that Metro remains under tight
spending and budget restrictions despite passage of a half-cent sales tax by
voters in St. Louis County in April. Those funds will not begin to be collected
until July 1 and will not begin to arrive at Metro until late September. He
noted the $80 million a year projected to result from the new sales tax already
is committed to critical financial needs. He added that, contrary to popular
belief since passage of the tax, "We’re not rolling in dough."

Baer said
tight fiscal management and spending controls had kept the FY 2011 budget
increase at less than the inflation rate of 3 percent a year since FY 2008 and
that Metro is finishing FY 2010 by spending $4 million less than budgeted.

The Board
also approved a recommendation from management to defer fare increases that had
been scheduled for July 1, 2010 until sometime in 2011. Baer said it was not
appropriate to raise fares before service was restored to pre-2009 levels. He
also said fares are the only source of revenue keeping pace with inflation and
already are in line with those charged by other transit systems

In addition
to restoring services eliminated for financial reasons in 2009, Baer said the
new sales tax revenue is committed to replacing a $5 million decline in sales
tax revenue and replacing the one-time appropriation of $12 million from the
state of Missouri in FY 2010. The revenue also will replace millions of dollars
in federal capital funds spent on operations in FY 2010, freeing those federal
funds to be used partly to acquire more buses for service restoration. The new
budget also reflects $6 million in higher costs for fuel, medical costs and
utilities, and $4.8 million more to provide additional services under contract
with the St. Clair County Transit District in Illinois.

Baer said
it was difficult but financially necessary to freeze salaries except for
increases already contractually required and to freeze hiring except for
positions that are determined to be "mission critical." He said that even with
plans to hire 120 new drivers, mechanics and supervisors needed to restore
service, the agency would operate with approximately 90 fewer employees in 2011
than it did in 2009.

Baer said
restoring service to pre-2009 levels would mean Metro would again serve 95
percent of households in the region and reach 97 percent of employment sites.
Restoration also will mean a modest increase in passenger revenue for FY 2011.

Baer noted
that, despite the severe budget restrictions of the last few years, FY 2010 was
a year of significant achievements. He said the agency:

• Maintained
impressive service and vehicle maintenance performance standards despite
downsizing.

• Conducted
hundreds of public meetings and community engagements to educate the public
about transit.

• Completed
the region’s first comprehensive, long-range plan for public transit over the
next 30 years in cooperation with the East-West Gateway Council of Governments.

• Replaced
the Vandeventer Bridge in six days.

• Constructed
a state-of-the-art light rail paint facility in East St. Louis, Ill., investing
nearly $4 million in that community.

• Implemented
Oracle’s Human Resource Capital Management system.

• Won
several national awards and recognition.

Baer also
said projects scheduled for 2011, in addition to service restoration, include:

• Beginning
the Eads Bridge rehabilitation.

• Installing
track crossovers at the east end of Eads Bridge and at the University of
Missouri St. Louis.

• Completing
repaving of the North Hanley MetroLink Station.

• Repairing
erosion along the MetroLink track between Fairview Heights and Swansea in
Illinois.