Blueprint America looks at budget disasters on both sides of the ledger for public transit agencies

March 7, 2009 at 1:12 am

(Source:  PBS Blueprint America)

In a two-part series for Blueprint America on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, correspondent Rick Karr looks at budget disasters on both sides of the ledger for public transit agencies.

 In part one, Karr looks into the growing deficit in what it takes to run day to day operations of buses, subways, and trains — deficits that have prompted more than 60 agencies nationwide to propose fare increases, service cuts, or both, even as more Americans are using transit than at any time in the past 50 years. In part two, Karr looks into a looming crisis on the capital side of transit agencies’ budgets, the result of complex financial deals that the agencies made in the 90s to stretch their meager budgets, but which melted down with the rest of the financial sector — and could leave cash-strapped transit systems owing bankers hundreds of millions of dollars.

The following is a breakdown of Transportation and Infrastructure stimulus funding by state. In total:

  • highways and bridges: $26,810,000,000
  • transit capital: $6,733,700,000
  • fixed-guideway modernization: $742,500,000
  • clean water: $3,860,698,173

TOTAL: $38,146,898,173

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