MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Tuesday, the Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) laid out a detailed presentation on its new budget to the Memphis City Council.
Interim MATA CEO Bacarra Mauldin and Chief External Financial Officer Hamish Davidson were on hand at the city council committee meeting to discuss MATA’s finances and how they ended up where they are in 2024, eliminating nearly $20 million in expenses by cutting jobs and bus routes.
“This is a pivotal moment for MATA. It’s about modernizing,” Mauldin said. “It’s about changing how we serve Memphis. We recognize that inefficient service is not okay.”
MATA also wanted to clear up information on the $60 million deficit they are facing.
According to Davidson, the transit authority has operated on a deficit every year since at least 2014. That deficit was as high as $91 million in 2019.
“At some point, it would seem as if it was a train wreck waiting to happen,” said Memphis City Councilwoman Pearl Walker.
Davidson said they predict MATA will have an operating cost of roughly $60 million for fiscal year 2025, which should leave a surplus of $7 million after they reduced the budget from $85 million to $67 million.
Part of that involved laying off 52 union employees, 18 trolley workers, 28 administrative employees and eliminating 75 positions.
“As part of any restructuring of a business, there is potentially a need to reduce staff numbers,” said Davidson. “It may well be the case. We have some numbers that we have spoken about openly.”
MATA leadership said that employment costs account for roughly 60 percent of the budget. They also said they cut 30 percent of all their non-operating costs.
Councilwoman Walker had questions about other operating costs.
“I asked about those [Chevy] Tahoes being used [by MATA] to respond to accidents and that’s considered excessive spending,” Walker said.
Walker said she did like how MATA showed the council the proposed adjusted routes, which it has displayed for the public at their community meetings.
“To me, that was reflective of progress, that was reflective of [how] they’ve actually been working on something and so these are some solutions we have come up with,” Walker said.
However, Walker said the presentations still felt like fluff and would like more straightforward answers from MATA and solutions for impacted employees moving forward.
The MATA finance committee is scheduled to meet Sept. 17 at 2:30 p.m.