It's even worse than they thought.
Tuesday night, the Birmingham-Jefferson County Transit Authority met with city leaders to explain the Transit System's budget shortfall.
City leaders expected the BJCTA to report the system is $4 million short for next year. Instead, the BJCTA says its $7.4 million short.
"We just didn't know. We didn't know what the bottom line was. If I had even thought ..." said David Hill, Executive Director of the Birmingham-Jefferson County Transit Authority.
Hill says the system's $7.4 million shortfall caught him by surprise.
Hill thought the system would be about $4 million short next year because of the expiration of a federal grant and other one time money.
Now, Hill wants the City of Birmingham to come up with bail-out money. If not, Hill says the Transit Authority will be forced to slash services or use money ear marked to buy new busses to instead keep the old ones rolling.
"I see the numbers differently," said Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford. Several city leaders like Langford have doubts and questions.
"The numbers just do not make sense. Until we get to the root problem of the System's inadequacies in funding, we're going to keep on going from crisis to crisis to crisis," said Councilor William Bell.
"There are a lot of games going on. We are playing games with peoples livelihoods and their ability to get back and forth to work. It's just not right," added Councilor Carol Duncan.
Starting Wednesday, the City of Birmingham's finance staff - including the chief financial officer - will start pouring over the Transit Authority's books - re-calculating and double checking.
"Our books are open. Anyone is free to look at it. We're not trying to move anything or hide anything," promised Hill.
Hill says his books will verify that a bad situation has turned even worse.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement