dooms day around the corner

[Guest bohica]

Dooms Day is around the corner. The new rumor is that there is going to be a one year patch. But I also heard the authority is going to deny this patch. We already know the 3 garages being shut down and the termination notices and Lay Off notices. Has anyone heard anything else pertaining to this issue? After all the layoffs and terminations there is another cut of 30% of employees across the board that is planned.

[Buslover88]

Dooms Day is around the corner. The new rumor is that there is going to be a one year patch. But I also heard the authority is going to deny this patch. We already know the 3 garages being shut down and the termination notices and Lay Off notices. Has anyone heard anything else pertaining to this issue? After all the layoffs and terminations there is another cut of 30% of employees across the board that is planned.

Could you please explain these patches? I'm confused, that's why.

[Busjack]

Dooms Day is around the corner. The new rumor is that there is going to be a one year patch. But I also heard the authority is going to deny this patch. We already know the 3 garages being shut down and the termination notices and Lay Off notices. Has anyone heard anything else pertaining to this issue? After all the layoffs and terminations there is another cut of 30% of employees across the board that is planned.

Is there any factual basis for the last comment?

The first comment is acknowledged as rumor, and I'm sure that unless you are with the legislature or governor's office, or work in the inside sanctum of the RTA, you have no contact with anyone with knowledge. Yesterday, Judy Barr Topinka was on Channel 7, and she's with the RTA and she didn't know (except that the governor, her last opponent, is a jerk, and she wouldn't have handled it this way if she were the governor).

The only thing that is fact is that the RTA has a statutory requirement to pass a balanced budget, and while they didn't do it in 2007, they did not assume new state revenue in 2008. (See the RTA Press Release). Thus, the 2008 budget is what you are going to see in 2008 unless someone comes up with new money.

So, in summary, if you have actual information that another 30% cut is planned, cite a source, preferably with a link. While we have had debates over standards of believability, it is not nice to play with peoples livelihoods, unless there is some basis. The only credible basis at this point would be the people mentioned above, or Ron Huberman, or, as in the case of which 3 garages would close, maybe a garage supervisor or union official who would post it on an Internet site.

[Guest bohica]

I did state that it was a "rumor". In the garages and shops these rumors are going around. I wish I did see some actual documentation on all of this. I am not here to play with anyone's livelyhood when i am in the same situation. I am looking to see if anyone else has or had heard these same rumors going around the shops and garages.

For the question on the patch: It would be enough money to run the company and not laying people off but at the end of that year we would be back to where we started.

I wish everyone a Happy New Years.

[Busjack]

Could you please explain these patches? I'm confused, that's why.

Now that we know that we are dealing with rumor, and bohica has given an answer, I can give some elaboration of the reasoning behind the rumor.

Julie Hamos has said that she wants a "comprehensive plan," but it doesn't seem like one can pass the legislature, and if one passes, it will only be because the reforms are watered down (such as giving lip service to eliminating service overlap, but requiring the votes of 9 RTA members to do anything about investigating it). In lieu of that, the legislature might appropriate enough money to get to the next deadline, or the governor may again find a secret stash to postpone Doomsday, although, as I previously noted, downstate legislators were not happy about raiding the Coal Development Fund to finance the last bailout. The reason you do not see that happening immediately is that no one has figured out how to replace the funds taken from other portions of the state budget.

In any event, my point was that if the legislature didn't know what it would do, it was unlikely that rumor would know, one way or the other.