States 'Switching Tracks' to Avoid Public Transit Fiscal Cliff

State governments are trying to fill the gap in public transit funding left as the federal emergency money that kept them afloat dries up. “The fiscal cliff that public transit has been warning about has arrived,” writes Shirleen Guerra, reporter for the Center Square.

“The American Rescue Act Plan of 2021 included $30.5 billion in federal funding for transit agencies. The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act set aside $25 billion for transit agencies,” the article states. But those funds end later this year.

States are taking a variety of approaches to make up the difference. Massachusetts and Pennsylvania are directly funding transit directly via their 2024-2025 budgets. The budget signed by Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey last month doubled the amount of money for the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority from $127 million to $314 million. Meanwhile, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s proposed budget would increase the state share for public transit funding by 1.75 percent to $282.8 million investment.

In some states, “federal COVID emergency money transit has relied on will be replaced by other sources of federal dollars,” writes Guerra. In Colorado and Michigan, that will come in the form of funding from the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

Some transit agencies are turning directly to taxpayers for additional revenue, with mixed success. The mayor of Orange County, Florida, Jerry Demings, has floated the idea of a 2024 ballot measure to increase sales tax to help fund the Central Region Transportation Authority (LYNX) near Orlando, despite the fact that voters rejected a similar measure in 2022.