The Treasure Valley’s public transportation agency adopted a $36.6 million budget Monday afternoon without help from one of the two counties it serves.
Valley Regional Transit asked Canyon County to kick in about $82,000 for its services, but commissioners declined to contribute any money.
VRT’s executive director Elaine Clegg said it’s been a couple rough budget years for Canyon County and that commissioners also rejected other outside funding requests.
Clegg said she’ll continue talks with the county’s elected officials about using other funding sources in the future to cover transit services.
“It’s my commitment to ensure that all of our partners are contributing in the manner that they’re being served,” she said.
By comparison, Ada County covered nearly two-thirds of VRT’s $204,402 request.
“It’s been hard, frankly, for both counties to understand how the services directly impact them,” Clegg said.
The City of Star also declined to contribute to VRT for the upcoming fiscal year that begins in October, as did Melba, Notus, Parma and Wilder – which VRT doesn’t serve.
Despite the denial of funds, VRT’s overall governmental funding is 1.3% below its total request.
In all, the transit service’s operating budget will jump 4.9% compared to last year. Its capital budget will drop considerably by 70%.
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