City Council shifts EDGE funds to preserve some bus routes

The Memphis Area Transit Authority got a $460,000 bump Tuesday that will save some bus routes and trolley services, but the funds will come from the budget of the Memphis Economic Development Growth Engine.

The Memphis City Council approved a plan Tuesday to take the funds from EDGE and give the money to MATA. The move would push about $380,000 to save bus routes in Northaven, Bellevue, South Third, Crosstown and Summer. It would give $90,000 to restore some trolley services.

EDGE would get $1.6 million from the council this year instead of the $2.1 million approved in the city’s budget last month.

Council member Janis Fullilove proposed a $250,000 cut to EDGE’s budget in those budget deliberations but the proposal wasn’t formally included in the final budget vote.

“(The new funds) will not fix the entire problem MATA is facing,” Fullilove said Tuesday.

It will take about three months for the new funds to have an impact on MATA’s budget, said MATA president, William Hudson.

The council’s final budget vote added $606,000 to the $19.6 million it had already earmarked for MATA this year. Still, Hudson said his organization started its new fiscal year short by about $4.5 million.

With that deficit, he said, “you got to make cuts, deep cuts and cuts we’d not normally make.” Those cuts, including bus routes and trolley service, were mentioned as possibilities in MATA’s presentation to the council in budget talks earlier this year.

The city’s chief administrative officer, George Little, said Tuesday’s move was “robbing Peter to pay Paul,” and called for a more robust budget process that would better educate council members on the repercussions of budget actions before they vote.

EDGE president Reid Dulberger said his organization operates on its own fees and the funds from the council and from Shelby County are used as capital for projects, like expanding President’s Island for more industrial space.

EDGE was established by Memphis and Shelby County two years ago as a public economic development agency. Shelby County paid its $7.5 million commitment for the project all at once two years ago. Memphis paid $2.5 million last year, will pay $1.6 million this year and still owes about $3.4 million.