11/30/2009 10:02:00 AM Phillips claims role in balancing Metro budget
With Metro Transit facing a $213 million deficit over the next two years, Metropolitan King County Councilmember Larry Phillips in May called for budget solutions to avoid cutting bus service.
Today the County Council unanimously adopted a 2010 budget that preserves current levels of bus service for the next two years and maintains the delivery schedule for RapidRide bus rapid transit service promised under the voter-approved "Transit Now" initiative.
"At the beginning of the year, the transit picture was so bleak we were talking about catastrophic 20 percent cuts in service," said Phillips. "The 2010 Executive Proposed Budget called for 9 percent cuts to service, but the Council, with the help of a transit audit, was able to identify additional savings and efficiencies to close the gap without cutting bus service."
Metro's revenue, supported primarily by the sales tax, began declining steeply last year as the global recession reached King County. Phillips, chair of the Council's 2009 Budget Committee, led efforts to close the transit budget gap and called for a Transit Performance Audit to find long-term efficiencies for addressing what became a projected $213 million revenue shortfall in Metro's budget for 2010-2011.
