GREAT FALLS — The Great Falls Transit District has been providing public services that date back a few decades. As of June, 2023, the transit has provided rides to 17,838,119 on the fixed route buses, which dates back to March of 1982.
The Great Falls Transit District is its own political subdivision. It is a unit of government, but it's also its own thing, which was established by a public vote in the 1970s. That same public vote also established a mill levy to fund the district. However, that doesn't cover all of the district's expenses.
On Wednesday, August 23rd, at 6:30pm, Great Falls Transit will host a hearing regarding their budget and mill levy.
"The meeting is required," said general manager Nadine Hanning. "It's state regulations. It's all in Montana code. Every year, we have to set a budget, and every year, we have to have meetings to explain the budget and explain how much we're going to levy based on the calculation that's in Montana code."
According to Hanning, the district had a $4.8 million budget in the fiscal year that ended in June of 2023, for fixed routes. She said Paratransit was at $1.6 million.
The last budget year, the district's total federal revenue was just over $3 million.
In 2021, there was a decline in ridership, with a total of 235,325 riders, the lowest recorded.
Hanning said they are always looking to expand services. However, there are challenges that come along with it.
"The challenge in increasing services is always money," Hanning said. "There is a limited amount of money and there's also limits on what we can do with some of it. Some of it's only available for capital projects, some of it's planning money, so we don't necessarily have money that we can expand with."
Hanning said there is some federal funding that they receive for capital expenses, but since that money is limited, there is a high chance that the district will have to discuss establishing a capital improvement fund to cover any major expenses.
She added that they are hoping to grow ridership, and one of their goals is to help people understand how the transit system works. Emphasizing that most of their riders are transit dependent, she hopes to keep those services as long as possible.
"That's the primary thing, is to make sure that we can get people that are transit dependent where they need to be," Hanning said. "Something that would be great is to get the transit to where it's something that was useful to people, not just because they don't have another choice, but something that they want to use."
The hearing will take place at their main location at 3905 North Star Boulevard.
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