Comments: Grouped by Subject

4. POLICY ISSUES

A. Calculation of TDA Funding and Distribution

I. Calculate costs on actual “marginal additional costs” (PH-1)

II. TDA Funding should be primarily for transit, not streets and roads

(PH-1)

RTPA Response

The Shasta County RTPA adopted Resolution 00-21 describes the “Definition of Unmet Transit Needs and Reasonable to Meet”.

1. An identified unmet transit need shall be found “reasonable to meet” only under the following conditions:

2. It has been demonstrated to the satisfaction of the Agency that transit service adequate to meet the unmet need can be operated with a subsidy not to exceed 80% of operating costs in urban areas and 90% in non-urbanized areas. It must also be demonstrated that the unsubsidized portion of operating costs can be recovered by fare revenues as defined in the State Controllers Uniform System of Accounts and Record. The “Cost Allocation Method” is used for determining farebox ratio (see Exhibit A&B).

a. The Cost Allocation Method uses the following criteria to apportion revenue to claimants. Population factors are determined using the Dept. of Finance E-1 Population Report for the previous year. Each jurisdiction’s population is divided by the total County population to determine the jurisdiction’s percentage of the countywide population. The RABA service hours are allocated to each jurisdiction based on the service hours by jurisdiction. The calculation of transit obligation is based on an 80% Service Hours/20% population. Revenues are projected from LTF, STA and “off-the-top” allocations are deducted from the expected revenue. This amount is the total distributed to claimants based on the 80/20 split.

3. The proposed expenditure of TDA funds required to support the new transit service does not exceed the authorized allocation of the claimant, consistent with TDA Regulations section 6649 and 6655. The fact that an identified need cannot fully be met based on available resources, however, shall not be the sole reason for finding that a transit need is not Reasonable to Meet.