Memphis Area Transit Authority advocates and riders want the city to increase the agency’s funding to $50 million for the coming fiscal year. With more money, MATA could run buses more frequently and even add more routes, they say.
Instead, MATA is slated to receive about $5 million less from the city of Memphis than it received this year, making it unable to complete a previously-approved plan to replace routes secretly cut by prior leadership.
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Memphis Mayor Paul Young allocated $30 million to MATA in his proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year. That’s the same amount budgeted for the beleaguered transit agency this fiscal year, but about $5.6 million less than they actually received. The additional money was allocated in February to prevent scheduled route cuts.
MATA officials were counting on the extra cash to help undo a 20% cut of scheduled trips, which was implemented by prior MATA leadership about a year ago without board approval or public notice. MATA now expects to begin the new fiscal year, which starts on July 1, with less service than the schedule published for 2024.
In a written statement to MLK50, a city official said they “are still working with MATA to determine how the $30M can be maximized and on strategies to increase funding.”
Even as MATA officials work to balance a smaller-than-anticipated budget, advocates say that while $35 million would allow the agency’s plans to move forward, it wouldn’t be enough to overcome years of inadequate funding. To begin building a public transportation system robust enough to meet the needs of the working-class Memphians that rely on it, they say, the city needs to invest millions more into MATA.
Why $35 million is not enough
On a windy day in April, Lameco Stradmon stood outside Memphis City Hall with a group of advocates.
Stradmon rides the bus daily and has done so for about 30 years, he said. He has often waited for buses that never showed up. “A lot of people, more than me, depend on the bus to get to work.”
That Tuesday, he and the others with him had an audacious ask of the city: That the city increase its allocation of funding to the Memphis Area Transit Authority to $50 million.
Advocates say the additional funding could be used to have buses run more frequently, including earlier in the morning and later at night. MATA could also add more routes, expanding service to underserved areas like South Memphis.
Dorothy Conner, co-chair of Better Transit for a Better Memphis, said the city has effectively defunded transit for years by failing to account for rising inflation when allocating money to MATA.
The costs of materials and salaries have increased more quickly than the city’s investment in MATA, which has gone from $25 million in fiscal year 2017 to $30 million in fiscal year 2024 (with some fluctuation in 2021 and 2022 due to the city receiving federal COVID-19 funds). $25 million in 2017 is worth about $32 million in 2024 dollars, according to an inflation calculator from The Minneapolis Fed.
If the city doesn’t commit to giving MATA more money, Conner said, more cuts and layoffs may be unavoidable. “We are urging the mayor and the City Council to restore and expand funding beyond crisis level.”
MATA Commissioner Jackson McNeil, who is also the transportation and mobility director for Innovate Memphis, pointed out in a meeting that comparable cities have more significant financial investments in their transit systems.
Innovate Memphis has calculated the local funds per capita at about $49 in 2024, compared to $83 in Indianapolis, $100 in Nashville, $94 in Louisville and $56 in Oklahoma City for the same year.
“I just want that to sink in for us that without more operating dollars or a dedicated funding source, we’re pretty much conceding to the fact that we’re gonna offer less than stellar service for the next four years,” McNeil told other board members.
Less funding means more belt-tightening
While MATA leaders didn’t expect the city to provide the $50 million requested by transit advocates, they were surprised that the city plans to allocate less than $35 million.
At the April 17 committee meeting of the MATA Board, Interim CEO John Lewis discussed a major implication of receiving $5 million less than expected: A previously-approved plan to rebuild routes secretly cut by prior MATA leadership could no longer occur.
Building back those routes will not be possible “unless we find significant new savings within our current budget,” Lewis said.
Other concessions will also have to be made to stretch the $30 million city contribution to a balanced budget, Lewis said. One consideration is the closure of the interior portions of the Airways and American Way transit centers.
The difficulty in stretching the budget is “compounded” by the fact that vendors were not paid last year, meaning significant debt remains to be paid. Still, Lewis said he believes the budget can be balanced without further route cuts.
“Operational cuts will be the absolute last thing that we will look to do,” he told commissioners.
Katherine Burgess is the government accountability reporter for MLK50: Justice Through Journalism. Contact her at katherine.burgess@mlk50.com
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