METRO receives second round of stimulus funds
Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District is awarded $13.5 million from federal coronavirus relief package.
SANTA CRUZ >> The Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District announced Tuesday it will receive $13.5 million dollars in federal relief funding via the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2021.
The CRRSAA is a $900 billion COVID-19 relief bill that was signed into law by former President Donald Trump on Dec. 27. It is part of a $1.4 trillion government stimulus bill that was approved on Dec. 21, as the sequel to the CARES Act in March.
Of the $900 billion, $14 billion is allocated to transit. Urban areas will receive the majority of the funding, with an allocation of $13.27 billion. Santa Cruz METRO receivedslightly more than 0.1% of that allocation.
“This emergency funding can’t come soon enough as transit agencies nationwide are facing a deficit due to declines in ridership from the COVID-19 pandemic resulting in agencies having to make hard decisions in regards to layoffs and service reductions while still trying to provide an essential service to their communities,” read a statement from METRO.
METRO lost $1.3 million in revenue in the first half of fiscal year 2020-21, which ended on New Year’s Eve, due to low ridership according to METRO CEO Alex Clifford during his Annual Santa Cruz METRO State of the Union address.
Ridership tanked in mid-March as coronavirus-related lockdowns swept the nation. On the week of March 15, ridership dropped to around 25,000 rides per week, which is down 76% from the same week in 2019 where METRO saw around 102,000 riders.
Ridership saw an increase between early April through the end of the year, but never returned to full capacity. Another downturn began in December as the county entered the regional stay at home order. Ridership fell roughly 89%, from nearly 124,000 in 2019 to around 14,000.
“We have a lot of work to do,” Clifford said on Tuesday during his address. “Hence the reason about keeping the bus available for when people are ready to return to use it.”
Despite the dip in revenue, METRO has been able to keep itself out of the red by lowering operation costs. METRO has cut those costs by $3.2 million dollars in the first half of fiscal year 2020-21. Budget crunching has resulted in a roughly $1.9 million balance in the budget.
However, as the pandemic continues, the financial future for any entity is unsure.
“The future is real foggy right now. No one really knows exactly what it looks like,” Clifford said. “We certainly have more questions than answers and we don’t have real good history to draw from.”
METRO can look to the economic downturn of 2008 or the swine flu and avian flu pandemics for some guidance, but none of those created a financial situation like COVID-19 has. That is where the CRSSA funding and nearly $21 million in CARES Act funding for METRO comes in. The $34.5 million is intended to provide financial stability for the transit service through the pandemic.
“We’re desperately trying to avoid furloughs and layoffs and try to keep as much of that service out there,” Clifford said. “As we go through the months to come and revenues are still down, sales taxes are still down, we’ll bridge that monthly deficit with these CARES Act and these CRRSSA dollars. Our greatest hope is, by the time those reserves are exhausted, hopefully we’ll have come out of this pandemic economy in a strong way.”
However, Clifford is aware that isn’t a given and anything can happen during the next few months.
“If that doesn’t pan out and this is one of those long-term economic downturns, then it’s going to be important that when this is approaching being exhausted, that Congress continues to fund future allotments of coronavirus relief for transportation agencies,” he said.