At their regular board meeting, the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority (GRTA) approved an Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) proposal to reallocate $25 million of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) stimulus funds to the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA). The measure must now be signed by Gov. Sonny Perdue to become effective.
The proposal enables the authority to address a significant budget deficit and avoid making drastic cuts in service to balance its Fiscal Year 2010 budget. MARTA, in turn, will reallocate $25 million of the authority's capital dollars to fund transit-related projects in the MARTA service area.
"MARTA is extremely grateful to the members of the GRTA Board of Directors for their willingness to support this effort to help keep MARTA moving," said MARTA GM/CEO Beverly A. Scott, Ph.D. "This one-time funding infusion will help keep us afloat next year. But, the criticality of increased state/regional transportation funding for future years is absolutely urgent. We must take action to address this problem."
MARTA will allocate this one-time $25 million payment to preventive maintenance, which is a designated use of stimulus funding under federal guidelines.