CATA board shelves plans for BRT
LANSING – Plans for a $133 million Bus Rapid Transit line were shelved by the Capital Area Transit Authority board Wednesday.
The board voted to suspend the BRT project, nearly 10 years in the making, until federal funds are available.
At the same meeting where she announced her retirement, CATA Chief Executive Officer Sandy Draggoo told board members a lack of federal funding and the cost of an ongoing environmental assessment were key factors in the project’s suspension.
The controversial project, which CATA officials have said would have transformed the region's most important corridor, would have used elements of light rail to create a mass transit system along Michigan and Grand River avenues from the state Capitol and past Michigan State University before ending at the Meridian Mall.
President Donald Trump’s 2018 budget proposal cuts much of the federal Capital Investment Grant, which would have made up about $100 million of the BRT’s funding.
Draggoo said the federal funding cuts could impact many bus projects, including the second phase of Grand Rapids’ BRT line.
“It is not just a CATA project that did not get funded,” Draggoo said.
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In recommending the suspension of the project, CATA also considered the additional $720,000 cost of completing an environmental assessment, decreased ridership numbers and input from community members both in support of and in opposition to the project, Draggoo said.
“We do understand there are two points of view on the BRT,” she said.
About $5.7 million in federal and state money already has been spent on the BRT project, but Draggoo said, “I want to point out that money has not been wasted.”
The studies and designs that money funded will continue to be used on other projects, she said.
An additional $4.5 million in current grants and another $6.2 million in future grants earmarked for the BRT can be retooled toward other projects, Draggoo said.
Board member Robin Lewis said she remembers the early stages of planning for the BRT and said the decision to suspend the project was not easy.
“It is a bittersweet motion that I have to consider,” Lewis said.
Board Chairman Robert Swanson said the decision to suspend the project was the “financially prudent thing to do.”
“We knew that this was a key milestone here,” Swanson said. “Was this project going to be included in the president’s budget?”
Board member Donna Rose said ““Donald Trump did us a favor” in cutting some of the funding needed for the project. She said the lack of funding gives the transportation authority an opportunity to consider other projects.
“There are better things ahead for transportation than BRTs,” Rose said.
The decision to suspend the BRT comes about a month after CATA announced that in 2016 the agency paid about $1.2 million in fees and interest for late payroll taxes.
Board OK's firing audit firm
At the meeting Wednesday, board members approved recommendations that CATA’s audit committee made in the aftermath of the late tax issues.
The board authorized the committee to fire the current audit firm, hire a new one, and make attempts to recover some money from the agency’s auditor, insurer and employees who may have known of been responsible for the tax issue.
The recommendation also called for a comprehensive review of CATA’s finance operations. The review would be in addition to a Plante Moran audit of the payroll tax issue.
Board Treasurer Nathan Triplett said the comprehensive review would help to ensure such an issue doesn’t happen again.
“I don’t want to find out six months, a year, two years from now that something happened during that tenure that was missed,” he said.
Contact Beth LeBlanc at (517) 377-1167, eleblanc@gannett.com, or on Twitter @LSJBethLeBlanc.