Frustrated that Hamilton County pays virtually nothing for Metro bus service but controls the agency that oversees the system, Cincinnati officials are demanding some changes or they’re threatening to begin a new transit agency that will offer them more oversight and input.
If that happens, the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority (SORTA) — current operator of the Metro system — probably would cease to exist because the largest single source of its funding is the city of Cincinnati’s earnings tax.
Cincinnati City Council recently began the process to end its contract with SORTA, which has operated the bus system since 1973.
City officials want to negotiate a compromise with their Hamilton County counterparts by September. If a new deal can’t be reached, city council would then terminate the SORTA contract. Because the pact requires a six-month notice period, that would mean a new agency could be managing regional bus service by March 2009.
All nine city council members signed a proposal last month by Councilman John Cranley that would create a Greater Cincinnati Transportation Authority to replace SORTA unless a compromise is reached. City council is on its summer break, but members hope to hold a “transportation summit” in August with Hamilton County commissioners as well as officials from Butler, Clermont and Warren counties to hash out a new structure for the system.
“It’s not our intent to end SORTA, but we’ll do it if we have to,” says Cranley, who heads city council’s Finance Committee. “Our goal is still to negotiate and work out an agreement with Hamilton County so that won’t be necessary.”
Cranley, who has criticized the current structure since at least 2002, has said the agency has excessive overhead costs and alleges SORTA often reconfigures routes to favor suburban riders in outlying counties that pay little or nothing for the service at the expense of city routes.
Skyrocketing gasoline prices makes expanding the Metro system into a truly regional mass transit provider even more important, Cranley adds. But other jurisdictions won’t be willing to chip in for service unless they’re given some input into how the system is operated.
“I think there is a sense of urgency because of $4 per gallon gas that wasn’t there before,” he says. “Why not create a more equitable system where these other counties don’t feel like they’re the enemy, that they have a seat at the table?”
No matter what happens, Cincinnati officials vow that current bus riders won’t be affected by the changes. City council has agreed to “grandfather in” all existing service and routes into any new agency, meaning they’ll remain untouched.
“Areas that get service now will still get it, but in the future any additional service will require marginal fees to pay for it,” Cranley adds.
SORTA is a quasi-independent agency, but about $42 million of Metro’s $89 million annual budget — or 47 percent — comes from Cincinnati’s earnings tax revenues. Most of the remainder is derived from state and federal grants.
Although the city of Cincinnati is the largest single contributor to Metro, Hamilton County commissioners directly appoint five members to the nine-person governing board and decide whether to approve recommendations from city council on filling the four other seats.
Metro has more than 950 employees and operates 430 buses on 51 routes and provides about 23 million passenger trips per year. Metro also provides about 9,000 rides per weekday to Cincinnati Public School and parochial school students during the school year.
Cranley and some other city council members — Jeff Berding, Chris Bortz and David Crowley — have been discussing possible changes with Hamilton County Commission President Todd Portune for the past two years. Council’s June action is designed to finally bring the issue to closure.
If the city cuts ties with SORTA, its contract would entitle the city to most of the agency’s assets: about 390 buses, two large maintenance garages and more than $10 million in state and federal grants.
Under the city’s proposal, officials in Hamilton, Butler, Clermont and Warren counties would be asked to contribute to the new mass transit system. Each jurisdiction would be allotted seats on the governing board in proportion to their contributions, and service to those areas would be roughly equivalent.
For example, Warren County is about to be redesignated by the federal government from a rural area to an urban one due to development, which will give them more transportation grants that could be used to pay for new service.
With Hamilton County already facing at least a $25 million budget shortfall next year — and possibly more — it’s unclear where it could find money to help pay for bus service unless cuts are made. County Commissioner David Pepper is optimistic that a deal will be reached to salvage SORTA and incorporate some of the changes.
“I consider the city’s proposal to be how, in an ideal world, they’d like to see it,” Pepper says. “The good thing is it’s a truly regional proposal. The numbers right now aren’t where we’d like to see them.”
Cranley believes the upcoming summit will be productive.
“There’s a very strong willingness to negotiate,” he says. “Hamilton County controls the structure of SORTA. They could take action tomorrow, if they wanted to, to make these changes.”
While that’s unlikely to happen, Pepper agrees that some change lies on the horizon.
“This is like the first move in a game of chess,” he says. “I’d expect them to propose something that’s of the greatest benefit to the city. Hopefully we’ll be able to come up with something we all agree on.” ©
This article appears in Jul 9-15, 2008.
