State and Local Governmental Responses to Increased Financial Responsibility for Public Transit Systems

摘要

The report examines and assesses the reponses of selected state and local financial structures which support public transit and of the associated public transit systems to the phased withdrawal of federal transit operating assistance. While a phased withdrawal did not occur, the passage of the Surface Transportation Assistance Act of 1982 (STAA) did place caps upon the amount of federal transit assistance which could be used for operating subsidies and altered the method of disbursement of federal transit capital assistance funds. The report examines by in-depth personal interview, the particulars of the financial structures supporting public transit in five states and the circumstances of six public transit providers located in the states. The perspective taken in the study is that of a financial manager confronting a set of laws, rules and regulations which direct and confine the tasks of financing a public transit system. A high degree of attention is focused upon the state and local financial structures supporting public transit and the managerial parameters established by those structures.