CARTA offices and meeting facility
After being told that ridership is up compared to a year ago, the CARTA board on Thursday morning approved a budget for fiscal year 2024 that is slightly smaller than last year’s budget, although employee raises were still included.
But the board did put off until next month’s meeting a decision on whether to add a 50-cent charge to each Incline ticket bought to pay Lookout Mountain, Tn., for that town’s lost revenues over tickets no longer being bought at the upper station.
And in the third major topic covered in an unusually long three-hour meeting at the offices near Wilcox Boulevard and Amnicola Highway, the board was told that the employees’ disability and retirement plan is doing well.
Regarding the budget, CARTA chief financial officer Sonja Green Sparks said in a presentation that the total expenses are expected to be $27.54 million, slightly below this year’s budget expenses of nearly $27.56 million. She said fuel expenses are less, expensive COVID-19 cleaning costs have been eliminated, and medical expenses overall are down following a switch to a state plan.
“What that offsets are increases in salaries and wages,” she said, pointing out that employee wages overall went up 4.1 percent, including 4 percent for drivers.
Board chairman Johan de Nysschen seemed pleased with the budget, adding, “Keeping the budget relatively flat overall is a good place. I see where we can unlock additional revenue opportunities. We are going to need more resources to provide better overall coverage.”
Several members on this board that also oversees the Chattanooga Parking Authority seemed confident of finding additional sources of revenue for the local public transportation system. That included possibly raising street parking costs to match that of other towns or competitors, or creating new places for paid street parking, among other possibilities.
The discussion the last hour of the meeting dealt with adding 50 cents to each Incline round-trip ticket sold to pay to the town of Lookout Mountain money as a gesture of goodwill after Incline operational changes had been made that affected the town’s collections.
As CARTA attorney Allen McCallie of Miller and Martin law firm explained after saying he and some CARTA officials had previously met with Lookout Mountain officials, a state law had previously allowed Lookout Mountain to charge sales tax on tickets bought at the upper station. Meters were also set up to charge for riders parking up by that station.
In turn, the mountain provided fire and police service for the upper part of the railway and station.
But since the CARTA board made an operational change where tickets are either bought online or at the lower station only, the town has lost some of that revenue. Mr. McCallie said the additional cost would help offset the town’s losses.
Chairman de Nysschen initially said, “It was the appropriate thing to do.” But after some questions were asked by board members Arcie Reeves, Corey Evatt, and Daniela Peterson regarding such issues as whether the payment should be capped and the logic of helping an “affluent” community that can set its own property tax rate, the board decided to wait. They hope to get better figures and other information by next month to make a clearer decision.
Round-trip tickets are currently $15 for an adult and $7 for a child. Officials had said the 50-cent additional charge could provide $120,000 or more for the town of Lookout Mountain.
Also, during the meeting, the board was told that ridership on the Incline so far this year is more than 8,000 riders up from this time last year and is the best it has been since several years before the pandemic.
Transit ridership for the CARTA buses is up approximately 2,500 riders over a years ago, officials said.
Regarding the retirement and disability plan for employees and retirees, Ed Koebel of Cavanaugh Macdonald Consulting told the board and others gathered in a detailed presentation that the current plan and investments and participation appear to be doing well.
“You are definitely on the right trajectory,” he said.
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jcshearer2@comcast.net