Battle over transit money is not good for the Valley

If the Mahoning Valley is forced to return $3.4 million to the federal government because local transit agencies can’t agree on the distribution, heads will have to roll. This isn’t just about the folks at the Western Reserve Transit Authority and the Niles-Trumbull County Transit holding firm to their respective positions. It’s about feeding this region’s reputation for parochialism and short-sightedness.

At issue is the Niles-Trumbull’s contention that it has a right to $533,000 of the $3.4 million and the WRTA’s counter that $400,000 is fair. There appears to be no disagreement over the third recipient’s allocation. The Shenango Valley Shuttle Service would get $504,000 for transporting riders from downtown Sharon to the Shenango Valley Mall and for making trips to rural areas.

While the danger of the money from the Federal Transit Administration being lost is not great — there is no deadline for distribution — the ongoing disagreement is certainly not the kind of message the Valley needs to be sending to Washington.

With governments at all levels dealing with fiscal crises brought on by the nation’s economic recession and a decrease in tax revenues, any money from Washington or Columbus for local services should be treated as gold. There are many other regions of the state and the country that would jump at the opportunity to share $3.2 million for mass transit.

Indeed, there is a correlation between the demand for public transportation and the increase in the unemployment rate, and pay cuts and other concessions from those who are fortunate enough to be working.

Not new

Negotiations between the three area transit entities on the distribution of the federal dollars is not new. In 2000, the Federal Transit Administration added Mercer County to the Youngstown-Warren metropolitan area because of the loss of population. While it may seem strange for two Ohio counties to be involved with a county in Pennsylvania, today such multi-jurisdictional initiatives are the rule rather than the exception. The old provincial attitudes can no longer be sustained.

Mitra Reyes-Chapman, manager of public transit programs for the Eastgate Council of Governments, said the WRTA, Niles-Trumbull and Shenango Valley negotiate every year on the distribution of the federal grant, but she noted that “If one transit agency doesn’t agree, no one gets it.”

Therein lies the problem.

After all these years, you would think that the officials involved would not only have a firm grasp of differences between the federal formula that applies to urban service and the one used to determine funding for rural service, but would have all the relevant data pertaining to each service’s clientele. Yet, the disagreement between the WRTA and the Niles-Trumbull is over Niles’ contention that 99 percent of its service comprise urban trips, while the WRTA says the Niles transit agency has more rural trips than urban.

It would seem that this disagreement can easily be resolved by asking the Federal Transit Administration to analyze the usage data of all three transit authorities to ensure that their funding levels — based on the relevant formula — are accurate.

What should not happen is for this clash to be prolonged. There is much more important work to be done, as we noted in an editorial Sunday.

The loss of population in the Mahoning Valley and western Pennsylvania will continue, which means that a reassessment of public transportation is timely and necessary.

A metropolitan system serving this region is long overdue.