Lower Revenue May Cut Into Trolley Funds

Public transit systems and new transportation projects throughout California could lose as much as $110 million as the result of recent declines in the price of oil, state officials said Thursdsay.

Officials of the state Department of Finance, in their latest forecast of revenues, said tax receipts from the sale of gasoline had declined much more sharply than expected, endangering some projects and threatening cuts in others.

Public transit agencies in San Diego County could lose $20 million in state funds if Gov. George Deukemejian’s budget cuts are not rescinded, state and local officials say.

Two projects endangered by the recommended budget slashes are state matching funds for a $28-million San Diego Trolley extension to El Cajon and track improvements along the San Diego-Los Angeles Amtrak passenger route that would cut 10 minutes off the 133-mile run.

San Diego transportation officials expressed concern about the announced cuts but said they doubt that any major transit projects would be endangered, “not during an election year.”

John Vickerman, acting state legislative analyst, said that, except for the Amtrak track improvements and the San Diego Trolley extension to El Cajon, no specific San Diego projects have been earmarked for extinction.

Mark Taylor, state Department of Transportation program analyst, said that San Diego bus and trolley systems would lose about $3.2 million in state funds allotted for local operating subsidies and capital expenditures under the budget recommendations.

One bus company official hinted that the cuts were aimed at forcing local transit agencies to seek local sales tax increases to subsidize bus and trolley operations. A one-cent-a-dollar increase in the sales tax is scheduled for the November ballot in San Diego County.

Taylor said that loss of the state funds could cause local transit agencies to curtail service or delay construction projects, “but that is a matter for local officials to decide.”

He said that Amtrak’s schedule of seven daily trains on the San Diego-Los Angeles line is not jeopardized by the recommended budget cuts.

Jack Limber, general counsel for the Metropolitan Transit Development Board, said the newly announced reductions in spending “tend to make us uneasy but not panicked” at the prospect of losing state matching money for federal funding of the 12-mile extension of the San Diego Trolley to El Cajon.

“We are taking a wait-and-see attitude until we find out just what monies the state is recommending be withheld,” Limber said. He added that MTDB had no indication that any of its impending construction projects--the East Line extension and a Chula Vista trolley station at E Street--were endangered by the cuts.

North County Transit District spokesman Mike Gillespie echoed Limber’s comments, stressing that NCTD officials had received no notice of the funding reductions and plan no action until final budget negotiations are completed in Sacramento.

A spokesman for the state Department of Transportation said it will be at least a month before there is a clear indication of which projects might be affected.

Legislative sources also cautioned that, during state budget negotiations, lawmakers could make up part or all of the shortfall by borrowing money from other programs.

One list of potential cuts put together by the Assembly Transportation Committee includes money earmarked to subsidize bus systems, improvements along the San Diego-Los Angeles Amtrak line, and new transit projects in growing areas of Northern California.

In Los Angeles, the Metro Rail project could lose about $6 million, a small fraction of the $1.2-billion price tag of the project’s first 4.4-mile segment, from downtown Los Angeles to the San Fernando Valley.

As for regional bus service, the Southern California Rapid Transit District stands to lose about $12.8 million of its $493-million budget. Other municipal bus systems in Los Angeles County may lose about $2 million.

“We’re concerned about what’s happening at both the state and the federal levels,” said RTD spokesman Marc Littman. He said it would take a fare increase of between 5 cents and 10 cents to make up for the loss or cutbacks in service that would remove about 50 buses from the RTD 2,000-bus fleet.

On the federal level, the Senate also is considering a 20% reduction in transit subsidies, which could amount to an additional $10 million loss for RTD.

Susanne Morgan, a state Department of Finance budget officer who oversees the transportation budget, said the state cuts would reduce local transit budgets by about 3.5%.

Morgan said local transit systems can sustain the threatened reductions, but conceded that “this is a healthy cut, there is no way around that.”

Last year, Deukmejian signed a bill that requires the Administration to make up any shortfall in the mass transit fund. But Morgan said the governor did not expect such a sharp drop as may occur and is balking at using other tax sources to overcome the deficit.

Deukmejian proposes to set aside more than $1 billion in the state budget for emergencies. But legislative sources said they expect a major fight over using some of that surplus to bail out transit programs.