Canton, Ohio’s Stark Area Regional Transit Authority (SARTA) adopted balanced operating and capital budgets totaling $39,057,095 for 2025, which is projected to produce a $84,703 surplus at year’s end.
The spending plan, drafted after the auditing firm Jefferson Wells conducted a meticulous, line-by-line review of the agency’s finances, closes a $5 million gap in the original draft of the system’s budget for 2025 caused by declining sales tax revenue and less than anticipated federal assistance.
“The balanced budgets we passed tonight accurately align our revenue and expenses, protect our $6 million reserve fund, and place on solid financial ground, and will enable us to continue providing the safe, affordable, reliable, and convenient public transit service the residents of Stark County need, expect, and deserve,” said SARTA CEO Kirt Conrad.
SARTA’s Balanced Budget
The plan also demonstrates the necessity of the cost-cutting measures Conrad and the board of directors implemented when problems with the budget were detected late last year.
“President Ron Macala and other members of the Board, our staff, and I devoted countless hours to developing a plan that would enable us to meet the fiscal challenges we faced,” Conrad said. “The decisive steps we took at that time, including suspending some fixed routes, reducing staff via layoffs and attrition, and modifying ProLine, our Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant paratransit service paved the way to financial stability today and put us on the road to enhancing public transportation in this community in the years ahead.”
Conrad noted the changes made to ProLine and launch of ProLine Plus implemented in early February are already paying dividends.
“In two weeks, we’ve reduced overtime by 850 hours and saved $70,000 in payroll expenses,” he said. “Those figures underscore the fact that operating Proline as a countywide, on demand, point-to-point, unlimited service as we did for the past 25 years was simply not sustainable. The modifications we’ve made are fiscally prudent and will enable us to fulfill our obligation to people with disabilities and their families who depend on us for safe, affordable public transportation.”
Presenting a Prepared Spending Plan
In addition to presenting the board with a budget for this year, Conrad and his finance team also prepared proposed spending plans for 2026 and 2027.
“We want to have a clear view of what lies ahead, although that view could be clouded by events in Washington, D.C., Columbus, and here in Stark County” he said. “Right now, no one knows how budget negotiations between the Trump Administration and Congress will impact federal support for transit, the same can be said for the transportation budget that’s being hammered out by the General Assembly, and at this point we don’t know if sales tax revenue will rebound here.
“We’re monitoring all three of those factors closely and we will be prepared to make adjustments that will enable us to operate in the most fiscally responsible manner possible while transporting our passengers to the thousands of destinations in and beyond Stark County they travel to each day,” Conrad concluded.
