Pennsylvania is seven weeks into the fiscal year, and lawmakers have failed to pass a state budget. That means schools, service providers and agencies across the state are in financial limbo, including the Centre Area Transportation Authority or CATA.
About one-third of CATA’s $29 million budget comes from the state.
David Rishel, CATA’s outgoing executive director, said the state’s budget impasse won’t have an immediate effect on CATA. Between what CATA makes on contracts and has in reserves, it could continue without state funding for about six months.
His concern is trying to plan ahead.
“We have services we'd like to implement this year, and we really can't go forward with any new expenditures until we're certain what's going to come from the state," Rishel said.
This summer, CATA rolled out a new bus route in a part of State College they hadn’t served before. They want to keep that, and they want to try offering on-demand service to the State College Regional Airport and regional train stations.
“We'd like to experiment with some on-demand service linking the Centre Region to Amtrak, both to Tyrone and to Lewistown," Rishel said. "But those are services that we have to be sure that we can afford, that we're going to be able to fund that. So that stuff's all kind of on hold until we can figure out what's going to happen with the budget.”
Rishel said CATA is looking to move forward with the new services this year, depending on when the state legislature and governor pass a budget.
