Houston's NEW METRO is hosting a public hearing on its FY2011 budget at noon Sept. 27 and the public is encouraged to attend. In a break from past practice, the budget will be presented by METRO's President & CEO George Greanias.

Detailed operating and capital budgets will be available for viewing beginning Friday morning, Sept. 24, on METRO's Web site, www.ridemetro.org. The public hearing will be broadcast live on the Web site.

"We want the public to know how this budget was assembled and to assure the public that its tax dollars are being spent wisely," said METRO Board Chairman Gilbert A. Garcia, CFA.

Greanias said the NEW METRO will always strive to be strong stewards of taxpayer dollars. He acknowledged that the proposed fiscal 2011 budget reflects current economic challenges.

"We scrubbed this budget looking for areas to save money without compromising service to our customers," Greanias said. "Some savings are small, like removing office plants, while others are larger like eliminating more than 150 desktop and network printers."

The operating budget reflects no fare increase for riders or elimination of routes.

Greanias stressed that METRO employees are making sacrifices, including a 30 percent increase in health insurance premiums and the elimination of car allowances for METRO upper management.



"In the NEW METRO, our senior management will be graded, in part, on the number of times they ride our service," Greanias said. "It just makes sense that they ride the system they manage."



Delays in federal funding for the light-rail build-out had a major impact on proposed spending levels, which Greanias stressed will be revised throughout FY2011 as developments in funding and sales tax income change.

"We built this budget on the basis of pragmatic conservatism, so that more things are likely to go in our favor than not," he said.

At the hearing, the public will be encouraged to comment on the budget. Those comments will be evaluated prior to the budget adoption on Sept. 28.