Centre Region leaders to look at CATA funding formula

The COG General Forum unanimously voted to revisit the formula that determines CATA’s municipal contributions each year.

Centre Area Transportation Authority General Manager Louwana Oliva explained to the forum that a municipal match fund allows access to state and federal funds. State legislation calls for a 15 percent local match, but has a 5 percent per year catch-up cap.

The local match comes to about 3 percent of CATA’s total budget, she said, with the remainder coming from high farebox recovery, contracts and advertising revenues.

This match is determined by the Miller Formula, Director of Transportation Ryan Harshbarger said — a calculation that evaluates mileage, local subsidy by route, area value and local shares by municipality. CATA covers nine municipalities and Penn State, including the Centre Region municipalities, Spring and Benner townships and Bellefonte.

Elected officials were receptive to the idea of revisiting the formula, including representatives from outside the Centre Region. Bellefonte Borough Council Vice President Randy Brachbill cited an issue his borough had with the formula last year, saying while they ultimately paid the requested amount, it would be fair to look at possible changes.

“There may be a better formula out there,” said Spring Township Manager Bill MacMath, “but if we don’t look at it, we’ll never know.”

The forum directed the respective township managers to delve into the formula, reporting any recommendation by August.

The forum also unanimously agreed on the next three years of increases for municipal contributions, noting that at some point in the future, contributions may need to increase to 5 percent in order to obtain full state funding.

The board agreed on a 4 percent increase for the 2016-17 fiscal year, 4.7 percent increase for 2017-18 and 5 percent by 2019-20.

This story was originally published February 22, 2016 at 11:01 PM with the headline "Centre Region leaders to look at CATA funding formula."