Bus Riders and Advocates Speak Out on Risk of Continuing the Public Transit Death Spiral

Thanks to the over 90 people, including many of you, who responded to our earlier call to action to send emails to the Mayor and City Council members demanding more funding for MATA and not approving only $15 million for MATA. Special thanks to those of you who joined us yesterday for our action at the City Council meeting. It made a difference!

We have had an action-packed week, culminating in a victory yesterday with the Council committing to the full $30 million and Councilwoman Green changing her original proposal that would have only given a hard commitment of $15 million with the remainder subject to the vagaries of the Council’s disposition in six months. The City Council wants more information on the budget and the audit before the Mayor can draw down the second $15 million, which is hard restricted now to MATA thanks to our opposition to the original proposal.

Paul Klein, Climate Reality Project, speaks during June 10th City Council Meeting and students from Tigers Against Pollution stand with "Better Transit for a Better Memphis" signs.

Let’s be clear, $30 million is woefully inadequate, and we made that clear at the City Council Tuesday (see Daily Memphian article attached). We are insisting that at least the $45 million stated by TransPro is needed to run 100% of the COVID routes, of which currently only 70% are running. The higher commitment would also provide further service improvements, restore the steel wheel Trolleys and eliminate the $10 million in vendor debt that could result in MATA’s inability to secure fuel, repair equipment, and other essential purchases.

At the Council meeting, BTBM shared the availability of over $6 million in expired Payments In Lieu of Taxes (PILOTs) that are already restricted for transit only. The Mayor has the power to designate those above his paltry $30 million, and there is another $8 million potentially available over the next 12 months he could tap.

Christine Todd, Calvary Episcopal Church, speaks at June 10th City Council Meeting.

Over the summer we will continue to press for continued release of PILOTS, providing the County Commission privilege of appointing one Board member, in exchange for resuming their operational and CIP support and the allocation of a large portion of their retiring PILOTS to MATA as they previously had done In Response to MICAH and Sierra Club Chickasaw Group’s pressure in 2022.

We also hope to visit with our member groups to advise their members on ways to support our campaign for public transit funding and accountability. Please download our Case For $50 Million for MATA to be fully up to speed with our argument for increased funding.

BTBM Case and MATA FY26 Budget.pdf

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City Council adds 3% city pay raises in new operating budget - Memphis Local, Sports, Busi.

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