Port Authority board approves $485.7M budget

Port Authority’s board approved a $485.7 million budget Friday with the expectation that it will face many changes during the fiscal year that begins July 1.

CEO Katharine Eagan Kelleman told the board that staff prepared the budget the same way it usually does, despite huge losses due to low ridership and increased costs for cleaning and sanitizing facilities and vehicles during the COVID-19 pandemic. The agency expects to make up any shortfalls by using $141.75 million in federal emergency funds approved by Congress because of the pandemic.

Ms, Kelleman called it “an astounding year” to create a budget due to the economic uncertainty surrounding the virus. The budget includes 68 new maintenance positions to reduce overtime occurring because the agency switched to sanitizing all vehicles, stations and other facilities daily instead of monthly.

Among the unknowns are how quickly ridership will come back

— it has increased only a small amount since Allegheny County moved to the least-restrictive green phase of virus restrictions earlier this month — and whether Allegheny County and the state will be able to meet their normal subsidy levels. Drink tax receipts that the county uses to pay its subsidy are down during the virus, and the state Department of Transportation is facing reduced gasoline tax receipts and may not receive $450 million in payments to support public transit from the Pennsylvania Turnpike, which has its own revenue shortfalls.

From March through June, the Port Authority expects a deficit of about $21 million from a drop in ridership that reached more than 80% due to stay-at-home orders to prevent the spread of the deadly virus.

In addition to the federal funds, the authority expects to use about $42 million in reserves to balance the budget. The agency expects to end June with about $130 million in reserves, Chief Financial Officer

Pete Schenk said in an interview after the meeting.

“You would like it if you knew what your ridership revenue was going to be and what your subsidies were going to be,” Mr. Schenk said. “Unfortunately, that’s not the case for now.”

Mr. Schenk said the agency is still working through the federal guidelines and doesn’t know yet whether it will be able to use that money to cover the losses since March. It’s also too early to say whether $141.75 million will be enough to cover virus-related losses through June 2021.

“I think it’s really conjecture at this point,” he said. “There’s just so much uncertainty. I wouldn’t want to speculate.”

The board also approved a capital budget of $131.2 million, but that also is uncertain due to possible state funding shortfalls. Ms. Kelleman said the agency would concentrate on projects that involve safety first if the money comes up short.