The changing federal involvement in supporting public transit is challenging every transit agency to develop creative solutions to a myriad of problems. Small and medium-sized systems face many of the same difficulties faced by larger systems but often experience proportionately greater funding shortages. One major reason for this is federal regulations and mandates that significantly increase transit deficits. A second reason is the type of federal assistance received by smaller systems compared with that received by larger properties. Although federal capital and operating funding has decreased over the years under the Reagan administration, the most significant reductions have been in the federal funds available for operating assistance. Traditionally, the larger transit systems received, on average, only 14 percent of their operating revenues from the federal coffers. On the other hand, the smaller systems require a much greater federal contribution to their operating ledgers, some approaching 50 percent. Therefore, with the proportionately greater decrease in federal operating revenue, the smaller systems have suffered a proportionately greater hardship. As a result of reductions in federal operating assistance, the smaller systems have been forced to request additional assistance from state and local governing bodies. This need has created new problems, but it has also generated some enlightening solutions to these complex problems. These solutions are the prime focus of this paper.
Abstract