CAT Costs - Where The Money Goes
By Tracey Tomashpol
Because everyone in Hood River (city and county) who pays taxes is funding the Columbia Area Transit District, we figured that it was time to look at how our dollars are being spent. We’re starting with a dive into the CAT budget for fiscal year 2022 (July 1, 2021 through June 30, 2022). First the info on the expenditures and revenues, then some discussion about CAT oversight and governance.
A Quick Snapshot
Budget for FY2022: $4.3 million consists of:
• Revenues - $2,914,717
• Reserve & Project Funds: $1,410,091
Funds Available: $4,324,888
CAT Revenue Fiscal Year 2022 - $2,194,797
Planned Expenses: $2,852,156
Staff
• 12.5 bus drivers
• 4.5 operations management (field supervisors, dispatch, manager)
• 2.75 administrative (including 2 executive directors)
Where Does the Money Come From?
• Fares account for 5% of revenue
• Taxes account for 92.3% of CAT revenues
CAT Expenses FY 2022
Where Does the Money Get Spent?
Salaries make up a large portion of CAT expenses. And the Board just approved a one-year contract for the current executive director along with a “year-long temporary Assistant Executive Director” in order to have a “smooth transition.”
We’re big fans of orderly transfers of power but one year and thousands of dollars seems extreme for an organization this size. The US government manages with less than a year for its transition team, after all.
Salary and Benefits: $1,325,065 FY 2022
CAT: Spending More Per Ride Than Almost Any Other Agency. Nationwide.
The National Transit Agency database makes it easy to compare operations across transit agencies all over the country. To give CAT a fair evaluation of how well they’ve spent funds in the past, we used operations from 2019 (the last period before the pandemic forced operational changes in March 2020) and compared Hood River to agencies across the country.
The key metric is how much it costs to operate for each trip. For CAT in 2019, the average was $33.43 per ride, known as “Unlinked Trips” which are total boardings on an individual vehicle.
Total Operating Expenses Per Unlinked Passenger Trip 2019
In 2019, CAT was one of the country’s most expensive transit agencies - with ridership of 30,585 trips and operating expenses of $1,022,568. Don’t hold your breath for Uber and Lyft … that will hopefully be part of the Transit Master Plan discussions, so we’re unlikely to see any partnerships until late 2022 or 2023.
For FY2022, CAT will need to provide around 45,000 trips in order to reach the same HIGH cost of $33.43 per trip they had in 2019. We didn’t see that figure mentioned in their plans. CAT management expects only a gradual recovery in ridership.
If ridership for FY2022 only achieves the 2019 level, cost per trip will climb to $48.98. CAT officials say that the system of manually counting passengers leads to an undercount (we’re skeptical that it’s hard to count 1 or 2 passengers getting on each hour), but assuming that they’ve undercounted in the past by 25% AND reach that new number in FY22, the cost will still climb to $39.19 per trip.
Transit is an important piece of our local infrastructure. Current planning decisions are being made presuming that we will benefit, in the future, from an efficient public transportation system. CAT board members ARE elected, but the process hasn’t been very competitive lately. As a nearly 30 year-old public agency, funded by our tax dollars, it is upon us to educate ourselves and participate to help ensure careful oversight and accountability.
We used data from the CAT budget and the National Transit Agency database for the information included in this post. It is possible that CAT costs aren’t unusual for the types of service being provided. If so, that presents an opportunity to learn from others and adjust. Full credit will be given for additional statistics showing another agency with costs that exceed CATs – that is the beginning of the learning process and we encourage your participation.
Here is what the National Transit Database showed for CAT operating costs in 2019:
