Macon Council Includes MTA in Balanced Budget

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) — Public transportation in Macon and Bibb County will continue to run as usual despite talk about a loss of funding.

Macon City Councilman Tom Ellington says some members of the council’s appropriations committee were concerned about a MTA personnel issue that happened earlier this year.

As a result, some members voted to change the way public transportation is funded which would put it at risk of losing federal money.

Ellington says they put the issue to rest Wednesday night, and included MTA in the balanced budget that passed through council 9 to 4.

“I was satisfied that we had the answers that we could get legally and the other thing that was important to me was that we couldn’t afford to let transit lapse in this city, and if it wasn’t included in that budget there was a real chance that the buses would stop running on July 1,” said Ellington.

Macon Mayor Robert Reichert was glad to see council decided to include MTA in the budget.

“To have reliable transportation is an essential ingredient for a strong community, and so we didn’t want to jeopardize that in any way and I am most grateful to the majority members of the appropriations committee and city council for restoring this funding and putting it back into the budget so that the transit authority can continue operating,” said Reichert.

The city did not have to pull money from the reserve fund, or raise taxes to balance the budget.