While the officials controlling the state's purse strings can point to budget deficits, lagging ridership levels and late efficiency studies as reasons not to plug the R.I. Public Transit Authority’s projected $32.6 million deficit, there is no shortage of ideas on the table to address the financial woes.
Seven bills moving through the General Assembly are aimed at bridging the estimated budget shortfall for the next fiscal year.
The measures are being pushed by Save RIPTA, a coalition of labor groups and community organizations, as a package that needs to be approved to fix RIPTA's financial problems.
Among the proposals: Allocating the 7% sales tax on rideshare companies fully to the transit agency, increasing RIPTA’s share of the state's gas tax revenue and putting a $100 million bond issue before voters.
If that isn’t enough, Liza Burkin, a transportation policy analyst and founder of the Providence Streets Coalition – a Save RIPTA member – said the agency compiled a now-shelved 75-page report in 2020 that outlined in detail how transit agencies are funded throughout the country.
Only one of the proposals can be characterized as a short-term fix, Burkin said, citing another bill that would shift an additional $32.6 million to RIPTA from the General Fund.
Left untouched, the current $126.6 million funding proposal by Gov. Daniel J. McKee will lead to as many as 300 layoffs within the agency, said RIPTA CEO Christopher Durand. And service cuts are likely, too.
Durand said expenses have increased about 2% annually over the last decade – RIPTA had projected more than $159 million in expenditures for fiscal 2026 – while revenues from fares and advertising have moved in the opposite direction.
But Burkin and her allies are not looking for a stopgap.
“We do not want to keep going [to the Statehouse] every year with our hands out trying to prove transit’s worth when we know it is the economic backbone of any thriving metro region or state,” she said.
There is an economic argument to be made that without a robust public transit system, Rhode Island is losing out, according to Burkin. Most younger people and modern business owners prefer public transit and are more likely to have concerns about the environmental impact of traffic congestion and fossil fuels, she said.
John Flaherty, deputy director for GrowSmart Rhode Island, was one of dozens of advocates who in April met with members of the Nashville, Tenn., Chamber of Commerce at the R.I. Convention Center to hear about the history of a public-private partnership that led a successful push last year for a $3 billion ballot initiative that passed by a 2 to 1 margin.
One of the bills introduced as part of the Save RIPTA package would require companies with more than 500 employees to provide bus passes to workers as a pre-tax benefit.
Flaherty pointed to comments last fall by Hasbro Inc. CEO Chris Cox that access to convenient public transit will factor into the company's decision whether to move its headquarters.
Historically, state officials haven’t appreciated public transit, Burkin said. This attitude could hamper the economic goals laid out by McKee and General Assembly leadership.
Indeed, despite being the chairperson of the RIPTA board, R.I. Department of Transportation Director Peter Alviti Jr. publicly opposed the bill to boost RIPTA's share of the gas tax from 26% to 30%, telling lawmakers it would result in an annual loss of approximately $7 million for RIDOT.
“Transit agencies across the country are funded in a very diverse set of ways,” said Burkin, citing Massachusetts’s wealth tax on higher earners and New York’s congestion pricing scheme to shore up public transit. "But we haven’t seen the political will to make a bold, decisive and permanent change.
"Unfortunately, the General Assembly leadership and the governor haven't chosen a pathway forward," she said. "Even though we put forth a package with a bunch of creative solutions. And we are just saying ‘choose.’ ”
RIPTA is one of 25 bus agencies that have joined the American Bus Benchmarking Group, which has found that despite having a smaller service population, RIPTA provides more trips per capita across a larger service area and at a more efficient cost per trip than its peers.
The agency has undergone seven fiscal reviews and performance audits between 2002 and 2023.
“The conclusions are largely the same,” Flaherty said. “It is run efficiently, but it is chronically underfunded.”
In addition to averting “draconian” service cuts, Flaherty said the legislative package should be seen as an economic accelerator that can make up for lost ground.
“Some would say we have squandered the opportunity to make real headway between 2020 and 2024 when federal funding to improve transit systems was at its peak,” he said.
While stakeholders agree that much more public investment will be required, making the state a hub for the blue economy or increasing personal incomes will become a challenge without the full-throated support of the business community, said David Salvatore, director of The Providence Foundation, who he believes business leaders could be brought around with a bit of education.
This would also increase RIPTA’s customer base.
“This issue needs to be looked at holistically,” Salvatore said. “What kind of state do we need to be to drive economic development? There is an untapped opportunity to create a system that has been frankly underutilized.”
