HART projects bus ridership will increase by a half-million passengers, or 4.3 percent to 12.3 million in fiscal 2011 compared with this year, staff members told a Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority committee today.
The transit authority's budget will decline by 6.6 percent to $138.4 million, primarily because of a 13.5 percent decrease in the capital improvements budget to $74 million.
HART, co-owner with the city of the TECO Line Streetcar System, also anticipates a $1.1 million endowment available as of December 2009 for the streetcar line will be exhausted in fiscal 2012, if not sooner.
The city has anticipated the endowment would run out of money and last summer took control of the streetcar system's finances to put money from the endowment fund in a cash management fund to make low-risk investments such as treasury bills and certificates of deposit.
The endowment, which started at $5 million from naming rights and other sources, shrunk in part because of the streetcar line's $2 million operating budget but mostly because the endowment was invested in securities that took a huge beating on Wall Street.
The proposed budget will be submitted to the HART board in June. After two public hearings the HART board is scheduled to adopt the budget in September for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.
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