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Leaders of the Piedmont Authority for Regional Transportation go back to the drawing board today to tackle their budget woes.
PART provides transit service and transportation planning but faces a shortfall of more than $1 million in its budget that took effect July 1.

PART staff proposed closing much of the gap by cutting weekday bus service, saving about $790,000  with sharp reductions in commuter routes — including heavily used runs between Greensboro, High Point and Winston-Salem.

The full board delayed those cuts in a Sept. 14  meeting after protests from regular riders and officials from Davidson Community College,  which stood to lose much of PART’s daily service to  campus. The board decided to seek ways of limiting the cuts.

PART’s finance committee met last week and  could suggest today that the full board renew its request for additional money from county governments across the region. The counties rebuffed earlier requests.

The new plan would give the effort until Oct. 15  to see if “we get a good response” from counties this time, PART Executive Director Brent McKinney  said in a recent interview.

If not, PART would make the sharp cuts by Oct. 31,  McKinney said. The agency is in financial trouble because of flat returns from its main source of money, a tax on car rentals, and the counties’ refusal to approve other revenue sources.

Contact Taft Wireback at 373-7100 or taft.wireback@news-record.com