Birmingham City Council to ask Mayor William Bell to pay $2.7 million in overdue mass transit bills

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama

(Birmingham News file)

The Birmingham City Council Tuesday will vote on a resolution asking Mayor William Bell to pay up when it comes to three months of overdue mass transit bills totaling $2.7 million.
That money is in addition to the disputed $3 million cut from the 2012 city budget for mass transit. Members of the council's transportation committee, who endorsed the resolution, said the city should first deal with what's past due, then tackle the projected shortfall in the operating budget for future bus service. The city has not paid its $900,000 monthly tab for June, July or August.
The Birmingham Jefferson County Transit Authority is preparing to slash Birmingham routes in preparation for reduced funding this year.
"The BJCTA is still delivering service; therefore, we have to pay for it," said Councilwoman Kim Rafferty, who chairs the committee. "The committee is very against cutting routes just because the administration of the city does not want to pay the bill."
Rafferty and Council President Roderick Royal, who also sits on the committee, agree that changes are needed for efficiency at the BJCTA, but reject what they characterized as the city's Draconian tactic of withholding money to force cuts.
"The city should go ahead and pay up, and there needs to be active discussion on how to resolve this relationship issue," Rafferty said.
The authority in October is set to cut 45 of its approximately 245 employees and cut 14 Birmingham bus routes.
Chuck Faush, Bell's chief of staff, said funding for July and August will come after the city completes the BJCTA's contract, which he said is days away. As for June's $900,000, Faush said, "there was no revenue appropriated." But he said Bell is prepared to listen to the transportation committee's recommendations.
Bell has said the BJCTA could continue to provide bus service to riders on the canceled lines simply by adding detours from remaining routes to include them.
He cites several examples, including the West End Circular, which averages three riders a day at a daily cost of $152 per rider and a total annual cost of $153,463.
Bell maintains the BJCTA officials are using scare tactics to try to restore a $3 million cut in the city's budget for transit, but riders don't have to lose their service with proper system planning.