(The following story by Christine Olley appeared on the Philadelphia Daily News website on June 26.)
PHILADELPHIA — SEPTA riders can breathe easy.
The SEPTA board yesterday approved a budget for the 2007 fiscal year without fare increases or service cuts.
For now.
Speakers called on board members to emphasize advertising to boost ridership, to cut costs and to develop a contingency plan to avoid having to make up budget shortfalls the hard way.
The operating budget includes expenses of $991 million, an increase of about 4 percent over the current fiscal year, which ends June 30.
The increase, SEPTA says, is due to higher costs in wages, fuel, materials and services, and health-care benefits for employees.
Since February 2005, SEPTA and other Pennsylvania transit agencies have benefited from Gov. Rendell’s use of so-called “flex funds,” a diversion of federal highway money to public-transit agencies.
The flex funds have been available for all of the past two fiscal years, but will run out after the first six months of the 2007 fiscal year.
Calculating the end of the flex funds, SEPTA’s initial budget shortfall was almost $75 million. However, commitments for increases in state and local operating subsidies have reduced the projected deficit to about $50 million.
SEPTA hopes to fill that gap by getting the Legislature to approve a predictable, dedicated funding source that SEPTA can control.
“SEPTA owes it to this region to find every way possible to come up with the money to fill its $50 million gap before we even think about raising fares or cutting service,” said SEPTA General Manager Faye Moore.