FL: South Florida counties are asked to pay millions to keep Tri-Rail running

Three South Florida counties must pay millions of dollars to keep Tri-Rail, the 73-mile commuter rail system, up and running, the executive director of Tri-Rail told leaders Friday.

The need to make up what is projected to eventually be a $90 million annual deficit comes as federal stimulus money dries up, and state funding ends, the director said.

The immediate ask from Tri-Rail is $10 million per county to make up a $30 million annual deficit, said David Dech, the executive director for the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority / Tri-Rail, while he still assured leaders there was “not an existential crisis today.”

But even meeting the most minimum request could be a problem for counties as they ready their budgets for the next fiscal year. Counties use property taxes to pay for regional services such as libraries, parks, the Sheriff’s Office, homeless services, affordable housing and more.

“I’m very concerned,” said Broward County Commissioner Steve Geller, addressing the South Florida and Treasure Coast Regional Planning Councils on Friday after Dech’s presentation. “We have to continue Tri-Rail. … I don’t know how we do it, and I don’t know how we don’t do it.”

Dech said the train system is plunging into a deficit.

He is keeping the system afloat using federal COVID-19-related stimulus dollars — $71 million of it was used last year. But that money will run out in 18 months, he said.

Each county now is already contributing $4.2 million. Other funds include: $60.7 million from the state, which has been contributing since Tri-Rail’s inception in 1989 but has informed Tri-Rail it wants to cut funding to $42 million and then end it completely; $15 million from ridership fares, and $4 million from the federal government.

Tri-Rail’s operating budget is $150 million each year.

Dech told the South Florida Sun Sentinel that he is “not sounding alarm bells” yet, but said it was “conceivable” the system could one day shut down without additional funds.

“We’re OK for this year before it becomes a crisis,” he said. After federal stimulus dollars dry up, he’ll need to dip into reserves if no other funding source can be found. And then could come a reduction of service, such as no weekend routes to save money.

There are some initiatives to help raise money.

Expected later this year, there could be a groundbreaking of Colony at Boca Raton, a 340-unit, eight-story residential project on Yamato Road near Tri-Rail with 30,000 square feet of retail. There will be 51 units set aside for affordable and workforce housing, and expected to attract workers who need to be within walking distance of public transit. The project is on Tri-Rail land, and the rail station will receive rent.

But projects like that are not enough to make a dent, and the commuter rail station owns limited land, he said.

Yet none of the three counties were enthusiastic about finding the way to spare millions of dollars in their budgets each year moving forward.

Sean Adgerson, the deputy director of Transportation & Public Works for Miami-Dade County, told planning leaders the request was a “challenge” and urged them to appeal to the state to continue its funding.

“We are very concerned,” Verdenia Baker, Palm Beach County’s administrator, told leaders. “The state is reducing, the feds are reducing.”

Tri-Rail is needed to get working people from one county to another, and within each county, she said.

But to be asked for $10 million, “I don’t know how we’re going to handle that. Funding is a major issue for us,” Baker said.

Monica Cepero, Broward’s administrator, said the conversations with Tri-Rail have already started, but “that will be a heavy lift and a big stretch.”

Tri-Rail has about 15,000 riders a day, and 4.42 million riders a year. That’s a slight dip from 2019, which was the all-time high, when there were 4.49 million riders a year. That was before the pandemic, and before more workers began working from home.

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