MARTA passes budget it hopes will lead to brighter future | www.myajc.com

MARTA officials hope the nearly $857 million budget they passed Monday will put a new face on the troubled transit agency.

The budget that goes into effect on July 1 doesn’t add more trains, buses, or perhaps most importantly, bathrooms in the next 12 months. But it did forgo a planned 25-cent fare increase — which would have been the third in five years — and MARTA’s plan has it creating a financially sound agency able to restore cut routes and increase service within a few years.

General Manager Keith Parker hopes avoiding the fare increase — and possibly nixing a planned 15-cent increase in fiscal 2015 — will build credibility with customers who are paying 43 percent more for fares since 2009 with cuts in routes and the frequency of trains and buses. He expects the five-year budgetary plan will build enough credibility with the Legislature that it will seriously consider providing some state funding, and he is counting on a 3 percent bonus in December and a 3 percent raise for employees in the following fiscal year to restore morale.

“I think the budget puts us on the path to fiscal sustainability,” he said.

It may be a bumpy path. MARTA management began labor negotiations with representatives from Amalgamated Transit Union Local 732 Monday for a labor contract that could collide with Parker’s five-year plan.

Union President Curtis Howard has said the union will oppose Parker’s plans to privatize seven departments, including payroll and para-transit services — by suing in court if necessary. The budget for fiscal 2014 isn’t dependent on savings from outsourcing although the five-year budget plan is. “It is part of the transformational plan,” said Fred Daniels, chairman of the MARTA board of directors.

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