Tag: MATA funding

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Public Still Unhappy With MATA’s Transparency After Public Meeting

Photo: Justin Fox Burks

While the city of Memphis has allocated $30 million to Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) for fiscal year 2025 (FY25), questions remain regarding the organization’s $60 million deficit.

During the June 2024 MATA Board of Commissioner meeting on Wednesday, several members of the public expressed their concern for the deficit. Prior to the meeting, organizations such as Citizens for Better Service and Memphis Bus Riders Union said they were unhappy with the organization’s previous ways of addressing the issue.

“MATA owes the city of Memphis, especially bus riders, an explanation of how it is going to solve the deficit without hurting bus riders,” Johnnie Mosley, founding chairman of Citizens for Better Service, said.

These comments came after MATA administration presented their budget proposal earlier this month to the Memphis City Council for consideration.

During the meeting, the transportation agency did not directly address the deficit. Instead, MATA said they were committed to increasing revenue and “refining [their] process of spending.” At the board meeting, MATA interim CEO Bacarra Mauldin said the council would be “more involved” with all organizations and agencies receiving money from the city. 

Mauldin also said, with the city being their primary funding source, they want to make sure they are being as “transparent” as possible.

Shelby County government has allocated $1.2 million towards MATA for FY25, which Mauldin said is “consistent with where they’ve been for the past few years.” She noted that while it may seem like a small amount, their consideration in the budget means there is still the “opportunity to move forward.”

As the city has wrapped up its budget season, Mauldin said she is focused on building relationships with county commissioners and administration to procure a “higher level of funding” in the future.

“We know that the money that we have from the city of Memphis as well as Shelby County will not plug the entire hole,” Mauldin said. “We’re going to continue to work with those funding partners, but in addition we’re going to look into some other ways to get funding to close that gap. Most importantly, we’re going to look in the mirror and we’re going to tighten our own belts, and we’re going to spend smarter on the right things at the right time.”

She added that they are putting safeguards in place in order to ensure they’re being “good stewards of all the taxpayer’s money.”

Hamish Davidson of J.S. Held LLC has been retained by the organization as an external CFO and presented on “financial controls” during the board meeting. Davidson remarked that finance is “an area where if you don’t have the proper controls then your finance department can leak like a sieve.” To prevent this, Davidson said they are working to “spend smarter” and make sure they know where every dollar is spent.

Davidson said they currently have an understanding of MATA’s “historical processes and procedures” as well as their accounting systems. They also have gained the trust of employees.

However, he said they still need to identify their risk profiles and “current and future state of their budget and headcount,” and “determine the appropriate controls, reporting, and policies necessary.”

“A lot of these processes need to be updated,” Davidson said. “They’re totally out of date and more importantly they also need to be followed to the letter.”

Davidson said when he was retained in February, he thought they would be “long finished” by now in addressing these things, but he said it’s been put on the back burner due to more “pressing issues” related to MATA’s financials such as preparing the budget for FY25.

He said over the next few weeks they could create a timetable to present to MATA’s Board of Commissioners.

Close to the end of the meeting, the board opened the floor for public comment. They noted that this portion was for receiving comments and that they would not engage in a “spirited debate.”

Some participants made comments about bad service from both the agency and bus drivers; however, most complaints were about the agency’s finances.

Joe Kent of the Taxpayer Justice Institute criticized the agency for saying they lead with transparency when he said they are “anything but transparent.”

“If you want to collaborate with the public you need to answer questions,” Kent said. “How are you operating with a negative $10.1 million in cash? I just don’t understand that.”

Another participant suggested that the organization was “being investigated and some indictments were coming down.”

The board said that while they were not going to go back and forth with participants, they would follow up with them individually.

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MATA Presents Budget Proposal to City Council

Photo: Justin Fox Burks

The Memphis Area Transit Authority has requested $30,670,000 from the Memphis City Council for Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25.) This meeting comes weeks after it was revealed that MATA had a $60 million deficit.

MATA is projecting $65,219,738 in revenue for FY25, with federal grants and contributions from the city and county government contributing major portions. The agency said the city is the primary provider of operating funds.

Despite a budget gap, the agency said it is committed to increasing revenue and “refining [its] process of spending.”

“We recognize that there is a gap,” said MATA interim CEO Baccara Mauldin who, with other agency officials, faced the council Tuesday afternoon for the budget hearing. 

“As the leader of MATA, personally and professionally, I own what I’ve inherited,” Mauldin said. “I own the problems but I also own the engineering of the fix. I’m holding the steering wheel on what will drive Memphis and MATA to a better mobility.”

Prior to her presentation, Mauldin said transparency and fiscal responsibility are two of her core leadership values, and as a result, she retained the services of an “external CFO” on her second day in office. Hamish Davidson of J.S. Held LLC joined Mauldin during the presentation.

Mauldin said the proposed budget for FY25 is $84,211,321, with its largest expense being wages and fringe benefits. She added that due to the nature of the work, the agency has to be more competitive with compensation packages. The CEO also emphasized MATA’s need for mechanics and operators.

In addition to needing competitive compensation packages, MATA says it needs more buses for fixed routes and MATAPlus services for citizens with disabilities. A large amount will go towards installation of the Memphis Innovation Corridor, which is the first bus rapid transit service in Memphis.

Mauldin reminded the council that these adjustments and changes are vital to having a “complete mobility system” in the city. She also said she would meet with council members and host town halls with constituents.

“It’s going to take some time, because we want to make sure that we reach every community through this process, that we get to talk to each one of you as well as our other stakeholders,” Mauldin said. “We really want to make sure that at the end of the day the reimagining of what transit looks like is a process and a plan we can all get behind, and know that we played a part in it.”

After the presentation, numerous council members posed questions regarding the expansion of MATA services to other communities such as the I-40 corridor, accountability measures, and increasing the electric vehicle fleet.

Prior to the dismissal of MATA’s team from the presentation, Councilman Chase Carlisle said, “The city of Memphis, the Memphis City Council is fully committed to supporting MATA. It is critical to core services and workforce development and opportunity. The city is committed to funding MATA at the level it’s always funded. I know the council is committed to that. I don’t think anybody has any intentions on reducing. The city of Memphis, at least the city council, is fully committed to funding at the level it’s always funded, and I look forward to the reimagining process,” Carlisle said.

Carlisle added that COVID changed the way the city looked at and operated on-demand services, and said the city has a “great opportunity” to reimagine it.

The council did not question MATA about the deficit which left some citizens “dissatisfied.” Cynthia Bailey, co-chair of the Memphis Bus Riders Union, said city council should not let MATA off the hook.

“The Memphis City Council must send a strong [message] to MATA that they are going to hold MATA accountable for past and future funding,” Sammie Hunter, co-chair of the Memphis Bus Riders Union added.

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U.S. Department of Transportation RAISE Funding Awards $38.2 Million to MATA and Shelby County

Photo: U.S. Department of Transportation via Facebook

Two Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) grants have been awarded to Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) and Shelby County. This grant program comes from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Congressman Steve Cohen announced that MATA will be receiving $25 million for its Crosstown Corridor Safety and Multi-Modal Enhancement Program, while Shelby County will be receiving $13.2 million for its Eliminating Barriers on North Watkins (Project ELBOW).

“These major projects, which both include important complete streets elements to ensure safety and accessibility for all road users, will transform our community, creating efficient and safe travel corridors where they’re most needed,” said Cohen in a statement. “This investment will lead to a bright future for Memphis drivers and transit riders. I’m also proud that this funding was made possible by the massive investments from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which I supported.”

MATA’s Crosstown Corridor Safety and Multi-Modal Enhancement Program will provide “complete street improvements and Bus Rapid Transit service along an approximately 26-mile corridor.”

This project will also include improvements to sidewalks, bus stations, intersection improvements, and signalization.

Project ELBOW will use funds to “design and reconstruct the 1960s-era bridge over the Wolf River,” said the U.S. Department of Transportation in a statement. 

“[The Wolf River] is rated in poor condition and will be upgraded to seismic standards and more accessible during emergency and evacuation events, and approximately 3.3 miles of complete street improvements.”

The grants are part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, said the U.S. Department of Transportation. The department also stated that 70 percent of the grants go toward projects “in regions defined as an Area of Persistent Poverty or a Historically Disadvantaged Community.”

“This round of RAISE grants is helping create a new generation of good-paying jobs in rural and urban communities alike, with projects whose benefits will include improving safety, fighting climate change, advancing equity, strengthening our supply chain, and more,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

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Politics Politics Feature

Major Differences of Opinion continue on MATA, New Voting Machines.

Although the Shelby County Commission is relatively bipartisan in its functioning, certainly in comparison to other bodies elected by partisan contest (read: Congress, the Tennessee state legislature), the occasional issue can prompt ideological cleavages to surface.

As circumstances at Monday’s regular public meeting demonstrated, there is a Republican hardcore — consisting of (in rough order of ideological purity) Amber Mills, David Bradford, Brandon Morrison, and Mick Wright. The commission’s fifth Republican, chairman Mark Billingsley, is a de facto centrist, using his position to mediate between factions of all sorts, including those that are party-based.

The current deliberations on whether and by what means Shelby County government should buttress MATA (Memphis Area Transit Authority) provide a case in point. Support for county financing of MATA is strongest among the commission’s city-dwelling Democrats and problematic to the extent that a commissioner’s base is in the suburbs, where Republicans dominate.

Jackson Baker

for voter-marked ballots, shooting video of county commission debate on concept

This is especially the case regarding the debate on the county wheel tax, the $50 annual fee assessed on automobile ownership that has been proposed as the basis, via a new surcharge, for financing the county’s assistance to MATA. The wheel tax, created in 1957 to aid school construction, has always been controversial, especially as, over the years, it was tapped for purposes rather than education. But this latest proposal to add a $20 assessment earmarked for MATA, has really fired up opposition.

The initial test vote, the week before last, topped off at five commissioners in committee; nine votes would be needed to enact a fee increase, and that first preliminary vote of 5 to 4, with 2 abstentions, clearly indicated there would be very little progress toward approval without substantial modifications.

Further negotiation proved possible, however, as Sheriff Floyd Bonner added his voice to those of county Mayor Lee Harris and the various commissioners, and a hook was attached to the original proposal that gave it immediate relevance to the distrustful suburban commissioners. The recent de-annexation of several territories from the city of Memphis left those areas without claim to Memphis Police Department law enforcement. It was obvious that new sheriff’s deputies would be needed in the de-annexed areas and just as obvious that new funding would be needed to pay for them.

Hence the reshaping of the proposed county MATA legislation, earmarking a percentage of the new wheel tax surcharge for the purpose of hiring new deputies. Some version of that concept, with or without specific bifurcation from the wheel tax proper, is currently under discussion both within the commission at large and under the auspices of a new Transportation Ad Hoc Committee created by chairman Billingsley and co-chaired by Commissioners Tami Sawyer and Mick Wright, pillars, respectively, of the Democratic and the Republican base.

Meanwhile, the wheel tax itself is under renewed attack. GOP Commissioner Morrison took the lead with a proposed resolution to subtract an annual $5 from the existing $50 wheel tax, to be offset by eliminating the commission’s $2.6 million annual fund for community enhancement grants. Money to make these grants is distributed equally to each member of the commission and then to individuals and a variety of causes deemed worthy by the commissioners. The ability to assign such lagniappe is especially significant for the Democratic commissioners of the economically underserved inner city. They are correspondingly viewed with something approaching indifference in the Republican suburbs.

Morrison’s proposal was a nonstarter in committee and, when brought to the floor of the regular meeting on Monday, begat a parade of vocal opponents from an audience jam-packed with spokespersons for the numerous programs, agencies, and causes that have benefited from, and in many cases have depended on, the enhancement grants.

So overwhelming was this response that Commissioner Wright posed the obvious response, an amendment, that passed without objection, to strike all reference to grants from the wheel tax reduction proposal.

As popular (and as inevitable) as that action was, it left the resolution without any visible or obvious means for offsetting the potential loss to the budget, which was recalculated on the spot to be $3.6 million annually.

Even so, the now-denatured measure was submitted to a vote, and four commissioners — all members of the aforementioned GOP hardcore of Mills, Bradford, Morris, and Wright — still voted for it, clearly as a symbolic gesture only.

What all this augurs is the likelihood of vigorous argument over the budget when that process begins some weeks from now, and several ad hoc skirmishes over expenditures between now and then.

• For several years, sentiment had been mounting among local voting-rights activists for new voting machines, and at length the Shelby County Election Commission, county Election Administrator Linda Phillips, and the Shelby County Commission all concurred in the necessity for such refurbishing, inasmuch as scarcely a single election has occurred in the last several decades without some mishap — and often a full-blown scandal — marring it.

The issue is, which kind of new machine. All principals acknowledge that the new machines, which Phillips has said she hopes to have on hand in time for this year’s August round of voting, must have “paper trail” capacity, for purposes of accuracy. The main source of debate at the moment is whether the new machines should allow for “voter-marked” ballots, filled out by hand and subject to a verification process including scanning by machine, or rely instead on machine-marked ballots, the printed results of which can be checked before final casting.

Phillips has said she prefers the latter process, maintaining that there is an 8 to 12 percent chance of voter error with voter-marked paper ballots. Proponents of such ballots deny those statistics and counter that the process of machine-marking ballots allows for fraud by means of computer hacking.

Democratic Election Commissioner Bennie Smith makes the latter point and last week conducted a demonstration before the county commission of how just a hacking could occur.

While the commission must approve the final funding for the new machines, it is the Election Commission which will determine the type to be purchased. An RFP (“request for proposal”) has been issued by the SCEC, and responses are expected on behalf of both types of voting machine. A group of pro-voter-marking activists turned up at last week’s meeting of the Election Commission and were denied permission to speak, on grounds that the RFP process was incomplete, though Smith and Republican Election Commissioner Brent Taylor demurred from the prohibition.

A group of the activists, with Smith in tow, lobbied the county commission on behalf of a resolution backing the voter-marked machines on Monday. Sponsor Van Turner acknowledged that the ultimate decision lay with Phillips and the SCEC but noted, “We can withhold funding.” Phillips countered: “And we can sue.”

In the end, the county commission sent the matter back to committee for further discussion.

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Opinion Viewpoint

MATA Needs More Funding

In response to The Memphis Flyer cover story: “Bus Stopped: The Battle over Route 31” published on December 1st, there is one key point we all can agree on: Memphis needs and deserves a reliable and efficient transportation system.

As chief executive officer of Memphis Area Transit Authority, it is my mission to be able to deliver this.

But public transportation requires a healthy investment. We all recognize that when public transportation is properly funded, it yields the results the community desires, including access to work, school, recreational activities, the doctor’s office, worship, and to visit family and friends. It also delivers a healthy boost to economic development throughout the community.

Since my arrival in Memphis two years ago, I have been emphasizing this point to our elected officials, community leaders, customers, general public, the news media, and anyone who will listen.

Ron Garrison

I understand the frustration many feel over the decision several years ago to eliminate the 31 Crosstown. For those who may not be familiar with the history behind the 31 Crosstown, when the decision was made to eliminate Route 31 in 2013 and provide other routes that served the same communities, there was quite a bit of ongoing dialogue even well after the decision was made. Many meetings — including those hosted by MATA and even one-on-one discussions — were held with members of the Memphis City Council and community groups.

When the dialogue about Route 31 resurfaced this summer along with the recent petition drive, I wrote a guest column that was published in the September 25th issue of The Commercial Appeal about the 31 Crosstown to explain the decision again. (Although I was not contacted by the Flyer reporter to comment specifically for the “Bus Stopped: The Battle over Route 31” article, I am glad Ms. Watts included parts of my views that were previously published in the CA.)

The lack of a dedicated source of funding, however, has caused the unfortunate result of trimming service and creating alternative solutions, as we did with Route 31. But we understand our alternative solutions may work for some residents, but not for all.

I deeply respect Georgia “Mother” King and her passion and dedication over this issue, along with the other citizens who have signed the petition, but the main obstacle to restoring Route 31 Crosstown is a matter of dollars and cents.

MATA is underfunded by more than $20 million annually compared to Memphis’ peer transit cities like Louisville.

If this group could help us convey to all of our elected officials that MATA needs a consistent source of funding to help restore public transportation to the level that we need and deserve in the Memphis area, I welcome their assistance.

Right now, it is imperative that we drive the conversation around that single important issue: discovering more funding. After all, public transportation in a city the size of Memphis is an absolute necessity for economic viability, opportunity, and sustainability.

Ron Garrison is the CEO of Memphis Area Transit Authority.