RIPTA may have to lay off 300 employees, reduce service if budget gap isn't filled
The agency released its layoff estimate two days after RIPTA management told lawmakers that they had not identified any way to plug the deficit that would not involve hurting workers and riders.
"If nothing else changes, and I do think there are opportunities to come up with new revenues, but I am not seeing anything right now that would solve that in full," RIPTA CEO Christopher Durand told the House Finance Committee on Tuesday night. "So I think we would have to be looking at service reductions or modifications, potentially fairly large ones."
Durand didn't put any numbers on how large those reductions would be or how many layoffs would accompany them when asked Tuesday, but on Thursday RIPTA spokeswoman Cristy Raposo Perry provided this update:
"Without any new revenue sources, and assuming there are no changes to our operations, we would need to reduce our workforce by nearly 300 employees. While a finalized reduction plan is not yet in place, it would involve significant service cuts statewide."
RIPTA had 849 employees as of February, according to a House Fiscal Office report, so a 300-worker reduction would be more than a third of the agency's workforce.
Budget woes have been building at RIPTA, and at nearly all transit agencies across the country, since ridership crashed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Federal aid plugged the gap, but it was exhausted this year. Lawmakers last summer included $15 million in leftover federal funds in RIPTA's $154 million budget to get the agency through the fiscal year that ends June 30.
But now all the pandemic money − both the dollars specifically for transit and the $1.1 billion in all-purpose American Rescue Plan Act aid −has been spoken for, and the state is facing a $250 million projected budget shortfall.
Gov. Dan McKee's proposed budget for next year is silent on RIPTA's budget deficit and actually includes around $1 million fewer state dollars (mostly via the gas tax) than this year.
So it will again be up to the General Assembly to prevent hundreds of layoffs and service reductions, such as eliminated routes or fewer bus trips per day on the routes that remain.
State lawmakers have proposed a number of bills to "Save RIPTA," with ideas that include requiring large employers to buy bus passes for workers, increasing RIPTA's proceeds from the state gas tax and directing sales taxes collected from ride-hailing apps to the bus system.
As a condition of giving RIPTA an extra $15 million this year, lawmakers required the agency do an "efficiency study" to identify ways to save money going forward.
The study was supposed to have been done by March 1, but RIPTA delayed it when former CEO Scott Avedisian resigned last April and was replaced by Durand.
Durand said RIPTA expects bids from interested consultants to be submitted by the end of Thursday, with work beginning in early April and recommendations delivered in May or early June.
Some of the ideas Durand said the state is looking at to provide more revenue to RIPTA include taking over non-emergency medical transportation for Medicaid enrollees, a service that it used to provide but that was privatized years ago.
To increase ridership, Durand said RIPTA is looking to provide more bus routes directly to large employers, similar to the service it runs to Amazon's new warehouse in Johnston. Durand said 30 people per day are riding to and from Amazon. The company is paying RIPTA $90,000 for passes.
He said Quonset Point in North Kingstown and the new stadium at Tidewater Landing in Pawtucket are other areas where RIPTA sees opportunities for growth.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: RIPTA warns of mass layoffs, major service cuts if budget gap not filled
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