Austin’s public transit provider, CapMetro, plans to cut its budget by about 20 percent for next year.
The decision comes as the agency faces a downturn in sales tax revenue.
CapMetro's proposed budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year is $704.8 million. However, for the last few years, CapMetro's budget has declined. For 2023-24, the board of directors approved a budget of $871 million, and in 2022-23, they approved a $902.8 million budget.
“We’re in good financial position,” said CapMetro Deputy CFO Kevin Conlan during a September 11 board meeting. “I’m very optimistic for next year, but we remain very guarded as well, with a downturn in sales tax.”
In this proposed budget, they are expecting a sales tax revenue of $402.8 million. Despite a lower budget, CapMetro said it still plans to bring some large projects online.
Their capital improvement budget, at $229.8 million, makes up for the largest of their expenses. The largest chunk of that budget, $149.1 million over five years, will go toward a North Demand Response Facility and their new headquarters build-out.
More improvements include $15 million for CapMetro Pickup, the on-demand ride share shuttle that picks people up right in their neighborhoods, and $2.4 million toward BikeShare operations and expansions. Earlier this year, CapMetro started replacing all of the city bikes with fully electric ones.
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