Northern Virginia leaders are hoping changes to statewide transit funding policy don’t hurt the bottom line for local bus systems.
“We’re beginning to understand some of the proposed changes that are being examined,” Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC) Executive Director Kate Mattice said at the body’s Sept. 4 board meeting.
The Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB) is currently considering changes to the state’s MERIT funding. Short for “Making Efficient and Responsible Investment in Transit,” the grant program provides about $200 million annually in operating and capital support to local transit systems across the commonwealth.
That money is allocated based on a range of criteria, including costs, current infrastructure conditions and a project’s ability to improve safety, congestion, emissions reductions, efficiency, economic development and other needs.
The details of the proposed revisions are complex, but the possibility exists that the region’s local bus networks — including Fairfax Connector and Fairfax City’s CUE buses — could see a reduction in state funding starting in fiscal year 2028.
Mattice estimated that the formula changes could reduce annual funding for Northern Virginia transit agencies by 3%, or $1.8 million.
The CTB is expected to launch a 45-day comment period on proposed changes on Oct. 15, with a final decision slated for Dec. 9.
At a CTB work session on July 15, state officials sketched out ways to revamp the funding formulas. Virginia Department of Rail Public Transportation (DRPT) found the existing formulas generally align with its capital project goals, but there are some cases that don’t neatly conform to its scoring methods and some categories “may not be achieving intended results.”
The MERIT program also caps funding for any given agency at 30%, redistributing any remaining funds to other agencies that haven’t met the cap. That approach means funding depends more on project costs than potential benefits, and it’s difficult for transit officials to predict how much assistance to expect every year, staff said in a presentation to the CTB.
Proposed changes include giving more weight to ridership and service-related metrics and less to operating costs, setting both ceilings and floors for allocations to each agency based on what they received the previous year to create more predictability, and eliminating “underutilized” incentive categories while adding ones to encourage “good grants management.”
Nothing is set in stone, according to DRPT Chief of Public Transportation Zach Trogdon.
The goal of the July meeting was to determine “how we might do some potential improvements,” he said.
At the meeting, state Transportation Secretary Sheppard Miller III said he anticipated any adopted changes would provide more bang for the commonwealth’s transportation buck — and more service for transit users.
“At the end of the day, all we want is for more people to be able to take more transit, better, to where they want to go,” Miller said, adding that “if we spend money places where that doesn’t happen, then we’re taking that away from the mission.”
Miller said the end goal is to set a policy in place that can guide transit operators.
“We shouldn’t be, and can’t be, running transit agencies,” he said. “That’s not our job.”
Wayne Coleman, a CTB member from Norfolk representing urban areas, said getting the right changes in place would have a positive trickle-down effort to the transit traveler.
“Through policy, we can affect behavior” of transit operators, he said.
Metro and Virginia Railway Express are funded through separate funding streams and are not eligible for MERIT support.
In a report to the board of directors, NVTC staff expressed concerns that the MERIT changes are being considered through a “rushed, opaque process that lacks budgetary predictability for transit operators/local governments and discourages coverage and commuter-based services.”
Staff recommended sending the CTB a letter advocating for any changes to be implemented through a transparent process, prioritize annual funding predictability for transit agencies and local governments, and reflect “the diversity of policy priorities” that shape transit service, including the need to serve low-income communities.
However, at the NVTC’s Sept. 4 meeting, Mattice said she believes more clarity is coming into view on the state’s plans.
“Actually, we may be getting there,” she said.
The NVTC board won’t meet again until November. At the Sept. 4 meeting, directors gave Mattice the authority to speak for them all as needed on the subject in coming months.
