Tonight the Board of Estimates will be voting on this “Amending the 2015 adopted Capital Improvement Plan to provide matching funds for the City’s 2015 TIGER grant application and authorizing the Mayor and Clerk to enter into a contract with USDOT to receive and expend the TIGER funds if awarded.” Do you have any clue what this is about and what the extra $10M in would be spent on?
Answer: Additional bus barn at Nakoosa Trail.
FISCAL NOTE
In this case the gives us a better picture:
This resolution amends the 2015 adopted Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) to shift funds for a Metro Transit satellite bus storage and maintenance facility as part of an effort to secure a federal TIGER grant to support construction of this facility. The 2015 adopted CIP includes a total of $35 million allocated in years 2018 through 2020 for this facility. This allocation assumes that the federal government pays 80% of the cost, which had been the funding split of capital costs for transit-related infrastructure. Insufficient revenues in the federal Highway Trust Fund have raised concerns that this level of federal cost-sharing might no longer be possible. The federal TIGER grant program provides opportunities for states and local governments to secure federal support for transit infrastructure projects through a competitive process. Proposals have a greater chance of success with local contributions of at least 30% or more. This resolution amends the 2015 adopted CIP to move up the $35 million to 2016 to 2018 consistent with the timeframe for this round of TIGER grant awards and increases the City general obligation borrowing support from $7 million to $17.5 million, or 50% of the estimated project costs.
If this level of borrowing is actually implemented, annual debt service will increase by $1.4 million compared to the adopted CIP. This level of annual debt service is anticipated to be fully realized in 2019.
Note: That last line means that $1.4M will be taken out of the operating budget for 10 years and won’t be available for police or community services or employee salaries 019 – 2029.
MORE CLUES
If you read the resolution you learn the following things of interest:
– Metro Transit’s current bus facility on East Washington Ave. is designed for 160 buses but currently houses 214 40-foot buses and 17 smaller paratransit vehicles
– Metro is unable to add any peak-hour service because of garage capacity constraints
– In 2014 the Council approved a contract RNL Design to design a satellite bus facility located at the Nakoosa Trail site. RNL has designed a 56 bus garage, which would house 36 60-foot articulated buses and 20 40-foot buses or 70 40-foot buses;
THE ACTUAL ACTION COUNCIL IS TAKING
The action the council is actually taking is:
– Madison Common Council amends the 2015 Adopted CIP to modify the Metro Transit capital budget to shift amounts currently programmed in 2018 – 2020 to 2016 -2018 and to increase general obligation borrowing from $7 million to $17.5 million and to reduce other funds from $28 million to $17.5 million
– Council authorizes the Mayor and Clerk to enter into an agreement with USDOT to receive and expend the TIGER funds should they be awarded.
CONCLUSION
Why not just say they are moving up the construction of the Nakoosa Trail Metro bus barn by two years (to 2016) and paying 50% of the costs instead of 20%, increasing our costs by $10M.
