Larger text
Smaller text
Print
E-mail
Port Authority banking on benefit cuts
Authority board members assume $45 million reserved by Gov. Ed Rendell will help erase the shortfall, along with $19 million in cuts to employee benefits.
"It's a balanced budget that has no increases in fares and no cuts in service," Executive Director Paul Skoutelas said.
The Port Authority serves about 70 million riders annually in a 730-square-mile area across the county and in parts of Armstrong, Beaver, Washington and Westmoreland counties.
The spending plan for the budget year that begins July 1 relies on $229.7 million in grants, including state and county subsidies. The biggest expenses are $141.3 million for employee salaries and $97.6 million for their benefits. Authority-generated revenue, including fares and advertising, totals $88 million.
The Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, the region's transportation planning agency, gets the final say on whether the Port Authority gets the $45 million in highway money reserved by Rendell in March. In all, the governor set aside $412 million in unanticipated federal road money to help transit agencies statewide.
The commission expects to vote in late July, and there was no indication yesterday that it would reject Rendell's request.
"There already is money reserved," said commission President Jim Hassinger. "The question now is more around the specific (use) of it."
The Port Authority is negotiating new labor contracts with its 2,600 drivers, supervisors and maintenance workers, represented by the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 85. The contracts expire Thursday.
Skoutelas said the primary issue is health care costs.
The Port Authority assumes it will cut $19 million in benefits through negotiations. Union President Patrick McMahon could not be reached for comment.
If the two sides cannot agree by Thursday, a 30-day cooling off period will begin. The state Labor Relations Board would assign a neutral party to prepare a nonbinding fact-finding report within 45 days.
Also yesterday, the authority board unanimously adopted its 2005 budget. The board chose last year not to adopt a budget because of its shaky financial situation. The $307.3 million budget relies on $218.5 million in grants, including state and county subsidies.
More Pittsburgh, Allegheny headlines
- Humar believes in being UPMC surgeon first, administrator second
- Defendant cooperates with DA in Meadows casino theft
- Planners need billions to rehabilitate roadways, bridges
- UPMC unit to increase use of organs from living donors
- Autopsy shows Hill District baby in bin was stillborn
- Cranberry couple under investigation in use of orphans' trust fund
- Fewer flights don't result in fewer authority workers in Allegheny
- UPMC Braddock closure plan upsets council
