By Erica Wright
The Birmingham Times
By Erica Wright
The Birmingham Times
The Birmingham City Council on Tuesday approved a total of $5 million for Birmingham Jefferson County Transit Authority (BJCTA) to provide public transportation from July 1 to December 31, despite strenuous objections from Councilor Steven Hoyt, the lone no vote.
The city will pay the BJCTA in two installments of $2.5 million for FY 2021, which begins October 1, instead of July 1, a delay of three months because of financial concerns associated with revenue shortfalls over COVID-19.
Hoyt said he was concerned because the budget process for FY21 hadn’t even started.
“I just don’t think you put the cart before the horse,” he said. “There might be some other ways in which we can arrive at some appropriate appropriation for transit. It’s amazing to me that whenever we get ready to cut, we cut the poor folks out first, the folks who are dependent and don’t have a choice of how they get to places… I think this needs to be discussed among all the councilors.”
Last year, BJTCA received $10 million from the city and councilors said the $5 million dollars, divided into two quarterly installments of $2.5 million, approved Tuesday is for the first two quarters which represent level funding as the city begins months-long budget negotiations.
Mayor Randall Woodfin, who is set to present the budget to the council next month, said funds are to make sure services for BJCTA continue.
“Any delay in not passing this can put in jeopardy to make sure that our residents get the service they need,” he said. “The City of Birmingham has been in a position before as recent as 2017, 2018 where it wasn’t passed until December 2017 but things still had to be voted upon for necessary measures as it relates to things still continuing to operate. … this is extremely important.”
Councilors argued that Tuesday’s vote approved half of the BJCTA’s funding for the first two quarters and the other half ($5 million) could still be approved in the FY21 budget.
