Last month, Port Authority adopted its FY2011 budget with a $47.1 million revenue shortfall. The federal government’s decision not to approve tolling on Interstate 80 has removed a cornerstone of the state’s Act 44 transportation funding program. The impact is felt statewide by road, bridge and public transportation systems, including Port Authority.
Port Authority is obligated by law to balance its budget. Unfortunately, as long as the funding crisis is not solved we have no other choice but to consider drastic service reductions in combination with a fare increase to help address the funding gap.
Today the Planning & Development Committee of the Port Authority Board of Directors announced proposed fare and service actions comprising a 35% service reduction and an across-the-board fare increase. The Committee also authorized Authority staff to move forward with a 30-day public comment period, including a public hearing.
The proposed fare changes would increase the base fare for both Zones 1 and 2, the cost of passes and tickets, and introduce premium pricing for light rail service and 13 express bus routes.
Service hours would be reduced by 35 percent, cutting the number of routes from 129 to 85 and forcing the closure of two bus divisions. At least 500 Port Authority jobs would be cut. About ninety neighborhoods throughout our coverage area would be left without any public transit service or see significant service loss.
The public comment period on the proposed fare increases and service reductions will run from Wednesday, July 28 through Tuesday, Aug. 31 at 4 p.m. Individuals and organizations may submit comments via postal mail or the Authority’s website, http://www.portauthority.org/.
A public hearing will be held Thursday, Aug. 19 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Downtown Pittsburgh. Individuals wishing to testify are encouraged to pre-register by calling 412-566-5437 (TTY 412-231-7007).
After the end of the public comment period, a final set of recommended actions would be voted on by the Board in September. The proposed fare increase would be implemented on Saturday, Jan. 1, 2011, and service changes would take effect on Sunday, Jan. 9, 2011. The next round of Transit Development Plan route changes scheduled for September will still go into effect on Sept. 5.
Port Authority understands the hardships that will arise as we are forced to raise fares and make severe service cuts, and we wish we could avoid such drastic actions. We are urging a solution for Pennsylvania's transportation funding crisis, and our Board of Directors has sent a letter to Gov. Ed Rendell encouraging the state to resubmit its application for tolling I-80.
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BOOOOOOOO Port Authority...Everyone show up to this thing...even better bring the salaries and bloated budget of Port Authority so we can show specifically what they are paying their union...
ReplyDeletethanks for making the middle class and working people of Pittsburgh pay for your years of mistakes UNION...you will be collapsed in ten years..its inevitable..state can't bail you out because the states pays too much to other unions...its all collapsing now..
wait to see what they do to healthcare!! this is what we all have to look forward too...higher and higher taxes and fares...lower and lower service...its the nature of government and unions..
this cut will be the end of anyone being able to get into/out of oakland. You already made it hard when you made the most recent service changes, now your'e going to completely tear apart all oakland riders.
ReplyDeletePeople will not be able to get to work...lose jobs... go on unemployment...go on welfare and hey we middle class tax payers will eat the bill for that too. Privatize our transportation system please! PAT cannot be bailed out of this disaster, why should the rest of us suffer terribly for its failures.
ReplyDeleteHere's another idea geniuses... force retirement for those rude, lazy drvers making 6 figures! Hire scabs at half the salary the current drivers are making when union strikes. We can barely afford to use PAT services now!!
PS wealthy people don't use public transportation... raising fares and cutting service is condemning PAT to failure... morons
And what would be the "premium pricing" for the light rail service?
ReplyDeleteagree with poster above..to the union it must be all wealthy people riding the bus cause they live in the suburbs...correction wealthy people pay to park downtown...those that can't afford that take the bus...so raise the bus rates and cut service and we just won't get downtown...80% of the middle class workforce takes public transportation downtown so you are hurting everybody port authority
ReplyDeletei say fire everyone in the union if they refuse to have their salaries cut like the rest of us have had ours cut..or at least pay more into their pension and healthcare..you would not believe what they get in those benefits...would make CEO benefits look like nothing...
we have no sympathy on you port authority..if you go under not a single person in this city would stand up for you because you have screwed us so many times...
$4 each way...its insane...absolutely insane...i am planning on going to the meetings with a big board of exacly how much the top brass of this stinking union makes and then how much the average bus rider makes...just so you know who is corrupt here...
ReplyDeleteevery year its the same thing...we need money we need money..lets rape our customers who have no choice in the matter..and give them lousy service and cut routes in response to jacking up their prices...
ReplyDeletewelcome to the union way of doing business people...hopefully the next governor stops giving into them and makes them actually perform work under a budget like EVERY OTHER BUSINESS HAS TO!!!!
It is amazing how people on this board have been brainwashed into blaming union drivers--hard-working, middle class workers just like you!--for budgetary concerns that by any objective standard are out of the hands of the Port Authority.
ReplyDeleteUntil American drivers see fit to pay their fair share of the transportation budget (and I don't see them clamoring for increased gas taxes), this will be a chronic problem for Allegheny County, and all the union-baiting in the world won't resolve it.
yeah ok...raise taxes on gas..which effects everyone..nice solution...we hate unions because unions deserve to be hated...the bus drivers make $80 grand and up...the average person riding the bus makes probably under $40,000....sorry but i have no sympathy for people that have their entire healthcare and retirement paid for...retire at age 50 and then bitch and complain every day that they need even more benefits...of course to get those benefits they have to keep increasing rates and taxes on those that can't afford it...
ReplyDeletethe days of unions are past...we all see them for what they are now...corrupt..
if port authority actually was a responsible business...they wouldn't let the union run its absurd demands every couple years thus running the company into the ground...just look at the car companies to see what unions are capable of...
ReplyDeleteit is in their hands..sure some things like gas and replacing old buses are things that could rise and fall..but what they pay the union is probably most of that $50 million shortfall not to mention as a previous poster stated that stupid hole they dug to reward other union thugs with a utterly useless jobs..
its amazing how brainwashed union people are that what they make and the benefits they get are in line at all with what the rest of the City on average makes..guess what...is not...
ReplyDeletewe have all had to take pay cuts and pay more of our health insruance...not to mention that none of us will retire at age 50 with a pension..so we aren't brainwashed..in fact we are waking up to the fact that for years the unions have run wild in this country and now the damage they have done is finally coming home to roost...
This makes me sick. You people are absolutely ridiculous. So many people are gonna be affected by this. Its not our faults you idiots dont know how to handle money. Dont punish the people who actually depend on buses to get to work or school and use them for every day life. Cutting routes wont make a least bit of a difference money wise. It will only, if anything leave you people more in debt. Lets start using our brains, shall we?
ReplyDeleteWell. Looks like you did it again PAT. Your wasteful spending and high wages are once again reeking (sp?) havoc in our area. Are you proud of yourselves? You can't afford anything. Boo-hoo. You shouldn't have spent money on the tunnel to nowhere.
ReplyDeleteThe new development plan. What development plan? That is being thrown out the window now with the new propesed cuts and fare hikes proposed on the news today?
The drink tax? What a joke. This is supposed to help PAT? Dannyboy, it didn't work.
Bland, you should step down. You know nothing about customer service or anythiing about your customers needs.
Onorato, quit playing games with your consituntents.It's doing nothing for your image. You will lose the governor's race if you don't fix this.
Boy mayor, you expect people to come downtown at night and weekends.How are we to do that when bus service is going away.
Rendell, you are just as greedy as the others. Thank God you areleaving office. You did nothing for our region. Go back to Philly.
Pisttburgh is turning me off more and more everyday thans to the incompetence and corruption of its political system.
Way to go boys. Hope your happy,.
Anyway the union can be ousted?
ReplyDeleteyou people really need a wake up call to reality and stop wasting money on useless things. thats why your in debt in the first place. i think this company needs to also rethink half their employees and actually get some with some form of sense in their heads who know how to RUN A DAMN COMPANY!!!!! its not rocket science. you people are gonna lose so much money by doing this and i will sit back, watch, and laugh because this is probably by far the dumbest decision. I was affected by the first cut last month now i have to go through it again, thanks port authority, i hope you all rot!!!!
ReplyDeletePrivatize mass transit. You won't have the wasteful spending of bureaucrats who can't do simple math.
ReplyDeleteI just noticed the new ad "Catch the Changes. Don't Let Them Pass You By." Apparently they may just do that in January.
ReplyDeletePort Authority has gone from driving past bus stops that have 10 people waiting because the bus is full to bypassing the entire county. Your incompetence is beyond disgusting.
ReplyDeleteI'm actively searching jobs in cities that have actual public transit. Pittsburgh has been called the most livable city and yet you will have no way of getting from one side of town to another. What a joke.
ReplyDeleteThis whole company is a joke.
ReplyDeleteWHAAA!! Let the Port Authority crash. That will then leave plenty of room for new private busing companys to start. The new busing employees will be getting a fair wage and the people riding will be paying the correct and fair fare. And all the taxes I have been throwing at the Port Auth can be used elsewhere. Probably to different pockets.
ReplyDeleteI agree with WHAAA. I am sick of the state using my taxes to pay for somebody elses ride to work. Nobody is offering to drive me to work for a cheaper cost then if I drive or take a cab. Shut down the port and let the new bus companys and riders work it out.
ReplyDeleteYep, I think it's time to search suburban jobs - you know, where the "wealthy" people live! It won't be over in January; when ridership plummets to abysmal levels, they will have to fold, so better safe than sorry.
ReplyDeleteunions are the reason this happened...i can't wait for them to cut service again on the west busway...last time they did the buses were filling up at the first stop and people were screaming at them as they went by...
ReplyDeletetime to actually take a stand and let them know that we won't take this crap anymore...get your business in order and fire everyone in the union burearocracy...i'm not talking so much the bus drivers but we all see the useless union people sitting in the parking lots doing nothing...fire them all..give them a taste of what the rest of the country is going through!!
this is what you get with liberals in the City Counsel and a union holding Pittsburgh hostage...what did all of you expect????
ReplyDeleteit always ends this way...just look at new york and california...skyrocketing taxes and rate hikes...no service..government can't do anything and until you people wake up and vote in some small government people (don't need to be of any party just believe in balancing a budget and stopping the wasteful spending) than this is what you get
This makes me so furious I can hardly type!!!! who does this union think it is...digging a monstrosity in the middle of the City and then crying that they have no money and we should all pony up with drastic rate hikes but oh wait..we aren't going to get better service with that...no no no...we get to be passed at bus stops by overcrowded buses coming every fifteen minutes or half hour...I HATE PORT AUTHORITY AND I HOPE EVERYONE IN IT LOSES THEIR JOB. THE CITY HAS NO MORE PITY ON YOU!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteUm, "the union" didn't dig a monstrosity in the middle of the city. PAT did. The bus-driver union /= Port Authority. Are you people seriously this clueless? Good grief.
ReplyDeleteHow about instead of blaming people trying to make a living wage (and no, I do not consider less than 100k and benefits and exorbitant salary for a city worker), you criticize the corporations that have so degraded the political and social discourse in this country as to pit one middle class group against another? It isn't the union's fault the rest of us are stuck in lousy jobs!
they are all connected...don't be so stupid that you don't see that the politicians, PAT and the union are in one incestuous relationship that is screwing the true middle class..those that pay the salaries of all those "city workers" that make up the bureacracy that does not do anything..
ReplyDeleteyou ever had to actually get anything done in the City Counsel Building..the laziest people in the world work there..believe me i have to deal with them constantly...so yeah i think they make way too much money and there would be people that would work for a lot less and be a lot happier doing it..
Oh please, I love people that act like corporations are the problem. Corporations provide a service a product and they hire people and give them work. Yes some aren't that great but they aren't an evil entity. Government and Unions on the other hand only live to leech off of those making money. Government provides nothing and Unions have not been needed for 100 years.
ReplyDeleteDon't be a lemming. All the Union does is complain and bitch about how they have no money, even though they pay their CEO hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Their greediness has been the downfall of the car companies, our once great schools and now Port Authority. Anyone really think that they would stand a chance against a halfway competent private company with low rates and friendly service? Not a chance.
All they ever do is threaten to strike over paying $20 for a copay ($20!!!!!!!!) - if you don't believe me go back and read their demands last time they tried to go on strike. They aren't protecting their workers from dangers as in the old days where unions were actually needed in the steel mills and still are needed in the coal mines. Now they just live to provide money to their favorite democrat politicians, rape the middle class while sobbing their poor stories of being the "working" class (Last time I checked making $120G as a bus driver was nowhere near "working" class) and lining their own corrupt pockets.
Its time to call their bluff instead of caving to them. The companies downtown will figure out a way to get their workers in. We will have to adapt and it might be hard, but it would be worth it to watch the entire union lose their jobs and see what the real "working" class lives on.
Unions are living proof of the old fable of the golden goose. Just look what they did to the car companies! There is only one reason why GM failed and it was the unions. They took and took and took and eventually they killed those once great companies.
ReplyDeleteSame thing will happen here. They have raised rates and cut fares so many times expecting the middle class to just keep ponying up. It can't anymore. No one riding the T can afford $4 fares each way and cutting bus routes makes it hard to get to work on time or actually get home.
They have killed the golden goose of having most workers downtown take their buses and T. Good riddance to the union.
AMEN!
ReplyDeleteanyone who stands up for the union on this blog is:
ReplyDeletea) never had to depend on public tranportation - everyone riding the bus and T know exactly who to blame for the horrendous service and constant fare hikes
b) a union plant
All - we removed several comments this morning. The rules are simple - no foul language, no personal attacks. If you stick to that, you are free to express your opinion.
ReplyDeleteIn response to a few of the comments ...
ReplyDeleteThis is not just a Port Authority issue, it's a statewide transportation shortfall -- all modes. That means we're short, SEPTA's short in Philadelphia, PennDOT's short, etc. This problem is not isolated to Pittsburgh or Allegheny County. Port Authority's proposal to reduce service and increase fares is in response to that shortfall.
To clarify - the base pay for a Port Authority operator averages about $50,000. Any driver who receives more than that is earning overtime. The use of overtime actually saves the Authority money since we do not have to hire more employees and pay more benefits.
ReplyDeleteThe shortfall Port Authority faces today is largely due to the federal decision to not toll Interstate 80. That alone creates an immediate $27 million gap in our annual operating budget. In addition, the amount we receive annually from the state has been stagnant, so we've not been able to the sharp increases in health care, fuel, etc. that many other businesses also face.
ReplyDeletesorry port authority..you just tried to strike a few years ago and we all remember your demands..so don't give us crap...
ReplyDeletewe are more informed than you would like and i encourage everyone to dig as deep as they can to find out exactly how the union spends it money..don't let them wiggle out on this oh its the state problem...they have had a problem for years that they didn't address...
It really is amazing to me how this company can be in the hole so bad when its service is so demanded. Every bus I get on is pretty packed and as a previous poster said something like 80% of workers downtown take public transit. So how is it that we get this totally corrupt union telling us they have no money?
ReplyDeleteI'd like them to open their books to the public. If you have nothing to hide then you wouldn't mind us taking a look at the actual salaries and benefits and how many excess union workers you have and see how much money we could save you :)
Who's with me?
Wow!! This is the first time I have read this blog and the comments. I don't disagree with what most of you folks have said, but let me comment...
ReplyDeleteThe anti-union sentiment here is staggering! And yes, the union here should get a large part of the blame. But don't forget past executives like the Skoutelas regime and others prior who spent money like the PAT offices were the US Mint. Bad management has been a tradition with this comapny.
I am 53 years old and do not drive. I depend on the bus to get back and forth to work every day along with using it for other travel. If there is no help coming from Harrisburg (or whoever), I will have to quit a job I have held for 26 years and made a decent living at. I know nobody has any sympathy for me, and that's OK. But for the sake of those of us who can't drive, or can't afford to drive to town or Oakland or who live in one suburb and work in another something does have to be done here.
And for all the commuters who do not use the bus and say "don't tax me" or "the government is evil" or "I'm the true middle class", please understand...if there's no bus, there will be more cars on the road, more traffic, less parking places costing more to park in. it will cost you more anyway! I don't care if I have to pay ten bucks a day to ride the bus...I want to be able to ride a bus to work...period. And I'm as much "true middle class" as most of you!
HEAR HEAR OPEN THE BOOKS!!! I BET WE COULD FIND ALL KINDS OF JOBS IN THE UNION THAT ARE USELESS!!
ReplyDeleteActually, our books are open. We are audited more than any other local agency. You can find audits, budgets and other financial details online: http://bit.ly/bdKGwp
ReplyDeleteAs for the poster talking about anti-union sentiment. Take a look around the country. ITs finally waking up to the damage unions do. We have seen the car companies fail. We see incompentent teachers unable to be fired because of the union. We see pensions that 90% of the rest of the middle class would never get bankrupting our states.
ReplyDeleteThat is why there is anti-union sentiment.
And to just say $10 a way i'll pay just feeds their greediness. I agree with the previous posters, before they can say they have no money let the public comb through their books. If they want to cut our services we should be able to cut through theirs. I guarentee that is a lot of horsecrap in their budget lining the pockets of politicians and union biggies.
No we want the true books. The ones with the donations given to politicians. The ones that list exactly all the benefits and salaries of union management. The ones that show exactly why we needed a big hole in the middle of downtown and why certain contractors got the job and how you could make million dollar mistakes.
ReplyDeleteTime to wash our hands of Port Authority. Your pensions will sink you because you encouraged your workers to be so selfish that they never considered that maybe this wasn't sustainable. When you collapse within a year then you will have no pensions to pay these people. And no one will feel bad for you. Maybe they should have saved money the way the rest of us do in our 401(K)s instead of relying on a business to provide for us cradle to grave..
I'd love to see a comparison of what union members make at Port Authority compared to the average bus rider's salary. One of the newspapers should do this! I'm sure it would be very enlightening.
ReplyDeleteYou know what Port Authority person posting, if this was the first time you had a budget shortfall I think most people would cut you some slack. Since you bring this little game up every single year we know you are lying and that your shortfalls are do to either horrendous and/or corrupt management.
ReplyDeleteJust my two cents.
You have tried to strike one too many times and you have raised our rates and cut routes one too many times. We don't believe a thing you say anymore and that's the honest truth.
Which is pry why those that want to see your books wouldn't believe them if they did. You have hopelessly corrupted yourself with your specials dealings with politicians and your grossly bloated pension and healthcare plans. You don't stand a chance to win this in anyone's mind or hearts.
You screwed yourself. Maybe you should have signed all the whining and sobbing about not having money to a time when you actually didn't and not all the other times you have pulled this.
Yes, PAT, you realize you are very much on the losing side of this issue...you won't survive the showdown.
ReplyDeleteVery well said. You've already lost the war PAT.
ReplyDeletehalf a billion dollars to dig that pit that NO ONE in the city wanted...and now you have the audacity to tell us that you don't have money!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeletethere is no justification for the money you threw on that tunnel when there is a bridge half a mile away you could have taken the T too...no justification whatsoever exception union payoffs..
how many more years would you have been solvent if you had done this...how dare you blame the state for not tolling a road that would provide $27 million when you had $531 million sunk into that pit
shame on you port authority.. go to _____
Just to clarify, the money used to pay for the light rail project is capital - not operating -and mostly comes from federal and state grant programs intended to support transit expansion. It's against the law to spend those capital dollars to balance our budget. Even if we hadn't spent a dime on that work, we'd still be facing a shortfall today due to the statewide crisis.
ReplyDeletewell maybe you should have lobbied to change the law so you could actually balance your budget and make yourself solvent...but oh wait then the union wouldn't benefit and couldn't complain about how broke they are and threaten to go on strike and raise rates to feed their bloated union pensions and salaries..heaven forbit common business sense invade the arena of Port Authority
ReplyDeletewe could have lived without that freaking tunnel..we can't live with the rate hikes and the drastic cuts...your priority should have been serving your customer base not throwing money away..which is all that freaking pit is..a pit where we might as well have had a giant bonfire of half a billion dollars
you will never recoup that kind of money from the north shore..people drive to steeler games or take the boat..or they walk across the bridge..there was absolutely no real reason to build that except to fund more union jobs and anyone that can't see that is blind to reality..
"The shortfall Port Authority faces today is largely due to the federal decision to not toll Interstate 80."
ReplyDeleteYou made your budgets on money that had not yet been guaranteed to your company. How could you have not had any sort of back up plan besides jacking fares and cutting what is already bare bones service?
A driver makes $50,000 a year? That's plenty more than most of the folks who rely on this joke of an organization make in two years.
It is true the I-80 piece had not yet been approved at the federal level, but Act 44 was (and is) the law in Pennsylvania. Had we not counted on the I-80 revenue back in 2007, we would have had to cut routes and increase fares then too. The result would have been the same for this community - but the hardships would have come sooner.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing they pay somebody to sit there and try to defend their incompetence. More money well spent.
ReplyDeleteoh boo hoo hoo..i love how this joke of a company blames everybody but itself for the hole it dug itself..
ReplyDeletehey port authority - why don't you look in the mirror and admit that you have messed up big time.
the list of those they blame - the state, the federal government, the City, the people that ride the bus!!! all of us our to blame not them!!!
you have no credibility left port authority
Ha, it is funny if it wasn't so sad that that is the way they run their business. Deflect blame, jack up prices, blame everybody for their own problems. There is absolutely no argument they can make that would convince me that this is not 100% their fault.
ReplyDeleteI agree if anyone really wants to have their blood boil read the last time the union negotiated their contract and see the pathetic whiners that they are. Complaining that they didn't get 10% raises and that they might have to pay co-pays like the rest of the world.
Its sick.
Comments on this blog now will be moderated.
ReplyDeleteoh goody...port authority can't handle the truth..wait too you go to your meetings and have to face the angry mob..
ReplyDeleteBig Brother has now stepped in! How dare we criticize the union or Port Authority
ReplyDeleteYeah, there'll probably be a gag rule at the meeting...
ReplyDeleteClose down the Port Authority and start over!
ReplyDeleteThey wouldn't post two of my comments even though I followed their guidelines. There wasn't a single curse/swear word in the posts and I didn't attack anyone. You taking away free speech as well, PAT?
ReplyDeleteGo ahead and scream at the meetings. What good did it do the last time they messed everyone up? They hold the meetings because it's the law, but trust me, they already have the cuts and fare raises set in stone. We're doomed come Jan. 2011.
ReplyDeleteI been looking at the Mid Mon Valley transit. They operate under offering competing bids from companies on maintenance, drivers, etc. Their prices are so reasonable and offering great discounts. I am making the switch. This is a mess how Port Authority is just running itself into the ground. Go PRIVATE!
ReplyDeleteI love that all of the sudden "comments" have basically stopped. Hmmm....
ReplyDeleteserious question...with the changes in September...and getting rid of the G1 is the G2 going to be running every five minutes or less? Because as it stands right now we still have overcrowding on the busway and we cannot afford any less service...either keep the amount of buses that are on now or you have to eliminate stops like sheradon that have multiple buses running through it so that those of us that have to get to carnegie can actually get on a bus
ReplyDeleteThe G1 is not being cut in September. It is proposed to be eliminated in January under the proposed service reduction. So, until then, both G1 & G2 provide service. In January, the 35 percent reduction would eliminate a lot of service and create hardships for thousands of riders, including those served by the West Busway.
ReplyDeleteEveryone cries, I dont ride the bus,why should I pay? I dont have kids in school. why should I pay school taxes? Lots of communities dont have a police dept. Why should my tax funded state police patrol their areas--Wake up people, somethings you gotta pay and support.
ReplyDeleteCreate hardships for thousands because Port Authority can't manage itself.
ReplyDeleteTo be perfectly honest,I'm starting to think this is all empty threats (like allof the other times. Seriously, do you think anyone will let PAT make changes this drastically? It will hurt the local economy if it does. Does anyone remember the strike back in 90s? PAT wasout of service for a month and the courts ordered them back to work. This sounds like the outcomes could be the same.
ReplyDeleteI think PAT said in the past that there are no bus companies in the US that weren't privatized. From what I understand, Denver has a super transit system and thiers is private.
Just a few things to think about.
Denver's transit system is public, just like PAT. They subcontract some of their routes to several private companies, though, and two of those aren't unionized yet. When their union workers went on strike for a week in 2006, the nonunionized workers kept part of their system running.
ReplyDeleteJust over half of Denver public transit's operating revenue comes from a slice of sales tax dedicated to transit. PAT spent years asking for something like that. Instead they got a promise of future revenue from I-80, in case the feds approved it. (Sales tax in the Denver region includes 0.6% for transit operating expenses, plus 0.4% to fund a transit expansion program.)
Denver transit's operating revenue is about 50% dedicated sales tax revenue, 25% fares, 20% federal grants, and 5% miscellaneous. PAT's is 60% state money (PAT must beg for it each year), 7% federal, 8% county, and 25% fares.
Denver transit doesn't present its financials the same way as PAT, so comparing operating expenses is difficult. But they mention that they figure salaried benefits as 33% of salary. If PAT had benefits that were 33% of salaries and wages ($137M in FY2009) they would cost PAT $46M. Instead PAT paid $106M. That might be because Denver transit is younger, so has fewer retired workers, or because their unions were less demanding, or because they subcontract significant portions of their routes to private companies (some unionized some not).
Some comments on PAT's Service Reduction FAQ on their website.
ReplyDelete"Q. Are you saying that the State Legislature failed in its effort to deliver reliable and predictable funding for transit?
A: Absolutely not. The State Legislature took a bold step in 2007 by creating a dedicated transportation funding source in Act 44."
Then let me say it. The state legislature failed to deliver reliable funding for transit, by pinning it a hope that the feds would permit tolling I-80, even though it's against their rules. One little clue that the legislature failed to deliver reliable funding: the current crisis.
"Q. Isn’t it also true that your Bus Drivers are among the highest paid in the nation? ...
A: [omitted, then this quote from the Trib]
“As of March, Port Authority's drivers had the 19th-highest hourly pay out of 246 transit agencies.... The American Public Transportation Association ranks the authority 21st-largest in the nation by miles traveled and 25th-largest by passenger boardings.”
A: It is hard to argue that the disparity between the “19th highest wage” and the “21st or 25th largest transit authority” is a significant problem."
That's true. It's hard to argue that the disparity between PAT's wage ranking and its size ranking is a significant problem, since the two have absolutely nothing to do with one another. It's absurd to say "look, we've got the 19th highest wage, but it's OK because we're the 21st biggest system, and 19 is close to 21".
The fact that PAT wages are 19th out of 246 is all you need to see that its drivers are paid too much. Now add in the fact that the cost of living here is significant;y lower than many other places. Driver pay here should be maybe 150th out of 246, not 19th. The size of the system has nothing to do with it.
"Further, the Trib’s research does not point out that the rate of increase in this wage rate has been well below the national average for transit agencies over the past 20 years, and this rank has fallen consistently over that time."
Since PAT drivers are already overpaid compared to other cities, naturally their wages aren't going to increase as fast as in cities where drivers are underpaid. You'd expect, in the natural course of events, that low-wage cities would increase their pay to drivers, and high-wage cities like Pittsburgh would decrease their pay (especially in this recession). Instead, all PAT can brag about is that their driver pay isn't rising even faster.
I thought this bit from one of the answers really condenses PAT's problems down.
"Over the past 10 years, healthcare and pension costs ... have risen at an annual rate of 21.8% on average, while all other expenses in the Port Authority budget have risen only 1.8% annually."
So even if PAT drivers are overpaid (and I think they are), they've been similarly overpaid for years, and the budget can still work out OK with those costs in it. But a 21.8% increase, every year for a decade? How can any organization survive that without massive additional revenue?
I don't see a solution. Somehow dump all the retiree costs in somebody else's lap? No other government agency's going to want them. Private companies seem to find ways to go back on their promises to retirees, one way or another. But the law may not provide a way for PAT to do that (not to mention the union firestorm that would result).
Changes that don't reign in these ballooning pension/healthcare/retiree costs are just postponing the crisis.
since i have started working downtown fives years ago (and i take the bus every day), this is the fourth time port authority has threatened the city with a strike or the possibility of going under. FOURTH TIME!!! every year its the same thing and every year somehow they manage to get money from people and magically stay open for business. its a union scam people, wake up!
ReplyDeleteThey should definitely privatize PAT. But if they continue to mismanage money, it's the same problem. I don't think they're even "broke". They don't know the true meaning of broke. If they can fund a $531M hole in the ground, nope, they're not broke. They're creating a $331M budget in 2011, but it's not for their supposed funding crisis. Brilliant. If they can't afford to pay their employees the amount they're getting than cut their pay checks, not their jobs.
ReplyDeleteWhy does pat need more money when they have things they don't need like a twitter page and a blog. You don't need to advertise yourself on your own buses. There are enormous cuts that could be made. They have their own police dept. You need none of these things to perform the services you are performing. Pat Transit is a leech.
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