Funding

Funding

The 2009 budget for the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority (ATA) was set in motion as a result of an election in the spring of 2008. On April 8, 12 months prior to expiration, the citizens of Kansas City, Mo., renewed a 3/8-cent sales tax dedicated to ATA operations. The tax was scheduled to sunset March 31, 2009, but was extended for 15 years, now expiring in March 2024. This is the second time in less than five years that Kansas City residents overwhelmingly voted to support ATA with dedicated tax revenues. The vote sent a message to area leaders that public transportation is vital to the region’s future. The tax is a critical source of KCMO funding for both The Metro and Share-A-Fare budgets.

The ATA’s Metro 2009 operating budget of $70,301,577 is derived from several sources of revenue shown in the chart below.

Local Funding

Kansas City, Mo., is the primary provider of all transit funding (59%) for Metro services. KCMO funding is provided by the 1/2-cent transportation sales tax (52%) initiated in 1971, and the 3/8-cent ATA sales tax (48%) implemented in 2004.

In recent years, sales tax growth has been anemic, averaging only 2% growth a year. Since both taxes are economic activity taxes, attaining even that small rate of growth is difficult with current economic conditions. The possibility of an extended recession that would adversely impact sales tax collections is cause for great concern. Community leaders and the ATA recognize the critical nature of transit funding and continue to work to identify a more stable funding. sounce.

Other communities contracting for Metro transit service from ATA are the Unified Government of Wyandotte County in Kansas, Independence, North Kansas City, Gladstone, Riverside, Liberty, Raytown, Blue Springs and Lee’s Summit in Missouri. The amount of service available in those communities is determined by those individual municipalities. Most of them fund transt from general revenues, which means that transit competes with all other city services for already strained resources.

State Funding

Funding from the State of Missouri was first received in 1997. At that time, ATA received approximately $2.4 million. In 2003, that amount was reduced by 65% to approximately $850,000 - where it has held steady for five years. In the state’s fiscal year of 2008-09, the amount was reduced to $781,000. That amount is relfected in the 2009 budget. The state reduced ATA funding again for the state’s 2009-10 fiscal year to $767,710 and the amount is included in ATA’s 2010 budget. While Missouri’s investment in public transit on a per-capita basis lags behind most other states, ATA and the Missouri Public Transit Association enjoy solid relations with the state legislature and continue to pursue enhanced funding options.

The state of Kansas has provided transit funding to the Unified Government for the past several years. The 2009 budget includes $460,462 from Kansas. The state of Kansas is currently developling a new statewide transportation plan. Future amounts are uncertain.

Federal Funding

The transportation bill known as SAFETEA-LU, authorized funding for federal fiscal years 2005 through 2009. ATA’s 2009 budget assumes funding will equal the 2009 apportionment identified in SAFETEA-LU. The 2009 budget includes federal formula funding of $7,496,512 or 66% of the $11.2 million in total federal funding in the 2009 budget. The remaining 34% of federal funding is from Job Access/Reverse Commute (JARC), Congestion Mitigation Air Quality (CMAQ) and other discretionary funding programs. New in 2009 was the $1,372,372 from American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (stimulus) funds used for preventive maintenance of capital assets.

Passenger Fares

Many people are surprised to learn that passenger fares generate only 17% of ATA’s total revenue. There is often a misperception that when ridership increases public transit must be making a “profit.” In reality, public transit acorss the country is heavily subsidized. In Kansas City, Metro serivce is subsidized by more than 80%.