Allegheny County officials remain uncertain when the Port Authority will stop running its buses and T cars, should the agency run out of cash as expected.
The authority is on pace to go broke in January but would have to halt service weeks earlier to ensure enough money remains to pay vendors, utilities and a skeleton staff, officials said Friday.
"Our operating budget shows we have a negative cash balance in January," Chief Financial Officer Claudia Allen told members of the authority's Planning and Development Committee. The authority's buses and T cars transport about 220,000 riders a day.
County Executive Dan Onorato is withholding a $27 million subsidy from the authority in an attempt to influence labor talks with union drivers and mechanics. The contract with the 2,200-member Amalgamated Transit Union Local 85 expired June 30, and negotiations have not been productive.
The authority officially ended fiscal 2008 on June 30 with a $14.8 million deficit and would end fiscal 2009 with a $2.8 million deficit rather than a $10 million surplus, Allen said.
"The reason for this is we have received no operating assistance from Allegheny County," she said.
The state could release $183 million in subsidies to the Port Authority, more than half its annual budget, if Onorato relinquishes the county's money.
Onorato blames the skyrocketing cost of benefits for the looming crisis. Even if the Port Authority received all the money, it would be on pace to run out of cash in early 2010.
Onorato and authority leaders want a new contract that cuts long-term expenses, such as health care and pension payments. Union leaders say they're willing to address those concerns, but so far the two sides have not been able to reach a solution.
The authority could announce at its meeting Friday when it would discontinue service.
The authority still would provide Access service, used mostly by elderly and disabled riders, because it does not operate with union drivers and is funded differently.
As labor talks continued yesterday, the authority approved a one-year contract with the Port Authority Transit Police Association that includes a 3 percent raise. The union, which approved the deal on Wednesday, represents more than 40 officers, sergeants and lieutenants.
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