Kansas City Council will consider a plan next week to fully fund the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority for six months, narrowly avoiding drastic service cuts and preserving existing bus routes during that time.
The stopgap plan will fully fund the KCATA from May to October. In the meantime, the city expects the agency to find more money from other providers and begin the process of reinstating fares for passengers. The city’s rideshare service IRIS could also be cut.
Mayor Pro Tem Ryana Parks-Shaw, who championed the plan, said it is meant to ensure the city’s public transportation stays “strong, sustainable and accountable” to taxpayers and riders.
“For years, the region's bus system has faced financial instability, requiring the taxpayers of Kansas City to step in repeatedly to fill budget gaps,” Parks-Shaw said. “While we remain committed to supporting public transit, we must demand a system that is fiscally responsible and positioned for long-term success.”
Mayor Quinton Lucas and council members Johnathan Duncan, Melissa Patterson Hazley, Darrell Curls and Kevin O’Neill also sponsored the plan, which a council committee advanced Tuesday. The full council will vote April 3.
More than 80 people packed the council chambers Tuesday to hear about the proposal. They included members of the Amalgamated Transit Union, which represents KCATA’s drivers; low-wage workers organization Stand Up KC; and climate activist group Sunrise Movement KC, all of whom have been pushing the city for months to increase its funding for the KCATA.
The agency initially said it would have to cut 13 of its 29 routes in the city due to a budget shortfall of about $32 million. The agency also proposed running its remaining routes less frequently and keeping only seven weekend routes, leaving riders to wait even longer for less service. More than 170 workers, mostly bus drivers represented by the Amalgamated Transit Union, would have been laid off.
The funding gap and proposed cuts led to outcry from transit advocates and community groups.
After KCUR reported the cuts proposed to KCATA, the Kansas City Council drafted the six-month plan, which gives $46.7 million — about two-thirds of the nearly $78 million the city already budgeted to KCATA — to cover operations from May to October. It’s meant to keep bus routes running during the first six months of the city’s annual contract with the agency while the two groups work out a long-term funding solution.
The rest of the city’s budgeted annual funds for KCATA will be set aside for the agency in an escrow account. In the meantime, the city will look for ways to give more money to the agency to prevent drastic cuts, if the KCATA doesn’t find other funding sources.
Under the proposal, KCATA must improve its financial structure, bring other municipalities on board and seek more money from the state and federal governments. It also requires the agency to report its progress to the council every two months and allow regular audits by the city.
Bringing back passenger fares
Part of the funding will come from reinstated bus fares. The plan calls for KCATA to begin charging a $2 fare. Low-income riders and people receiving aid from social service agencies would not be charged fares.
When KCATA previously charged fares, students and veterans also did not have to pay. Those groups would likely be included in the agency’s new fare model.
The “functionally free” fare model is something the KCATA has considered for a while. Frank White III, CEO of the transit agency, said it would take 60 to 90 days to reinstate fares with the old fare boxes as the agency transitions to a cashless system for validation.
The fully updated fare system would take up to a year to implement and cost about $3 million, which KCATA expects to pay using grant money. White has previously said the agency expects to bring in between $10 million and $13 million annually with fares. That would not close the entire funding gap, but it would cut it nearly in half.
The plan also gives Kansas City more oversight of KCATA. Lucas and many council members have complained that the agency is not financially transparent, has had too many administrative and overhead costs, and doesn’t keep them informed about possible route cuts.
Currently, Kansas City shoulders nearly all of the agency’s overhead and administrative costs, about $19 million.
Lucas said he’s been frustrated with the lack of input the city has had on KCATA’s proposed cuts. He says this new plan is a chance for the agency to find cost savings and not rely on Kansas City for the bulk of its funding.
“Let's see what we might be able to do, what our revenues coming in have been, to see where we might be able to find further support,” Lucas said. “Short of that, what we're not just going to keep doing is pushing more and more status quo year after year.”
Reginald Townsend, chairman of the KCATA Board of Commissioners, said in a statement that the agency’s primary focus is providing safe, efficient and accessible transportation.
“Although we have a strong ridership, we understand the need to make strategic adjustments to optimize the agency's size,” Townsend said. “This will help us better control costs, improve operational efficiency, and elevate the quality of service we provide.”
The future of IRIS
The city’s funding plan for KCATA could also end the rideshare service IRIS, which costs the agency about $7.6 million per year to run. During the six months of the stopgap plan, the city will look at cost-saving measures for the rideshare program, which could include cutting it altogether.
That would mean about 100 drivers would lose their jobs with no severance. Because they are considered contractors, they do not qualify for unemployment in Missouri.
Drivers for the rideshare program, which is run by the taxi service zTrip, rallied for the right to unionize last year over pay and safety on the job. One of their major priorities was to reclassify the drivers to employees to avoid situations like this.
About 50 people gave public testimony on the plan at Tuesday’s meeting. Many of them spoke in support of keeping the IRIS service. Others supported reinstating fares.
Bakar Mohamed is a driver for IRIS. He says he, like many of his colleagues, works more than 60 hours a week and drives about 30 people a day to and from work and doctor’s appointments. He asked the council to “think long and hard” about what cutting IRIS would do to the community.
“IRIS was funded and authorized to fill the gaps we have in our public transit system,” Mohamed said. “Terminating the IRIS program would have a massive impact of hundreds of drivers as well as riders.”
The city and KCATA will likely finalize their contract in April. Any possible changes to service will take effect in May.
Council member Duncan said if the agency can’t get more funding from other municipalities by October, the city could reconsider funding KCATA at its current level.
“It shouldn't be on Kansas Citians who are the only residents in the metropolitan area who are taxed twice for a regional transit system while no other municipalities are funding the system,” Duncan said. “I think that for the region, a functioning regional transit authority is the best way to connect all of our people. But if this regional transit authority isn't able to do that, we have to be thinking of what we do next.”
