During the main year of COVID, more funding had been provided to certain rural transportation agencies. But that will no longer be the case for some of them next fiscal year.
“This surprised all of us," said Erin Johnson, transit director for the Cheyenne Transit Program and Board Member for the Wyoming Public Transit Association (WYTRANS).
Called 5311 funds, this federal money is dispensed through the Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT) every year to rural transportation service providers to help operate, administrate and maintain.
However, according to Jordan Young with WYDOT, the carry-over created by the one-time COVID relief funding in 2020 has been exhausted, meaning funding is set to return to “traditional, flat annual federal levels."
“We did not understand what was going on at the time, and it surprised even WYDOT how much was actually cut," added Johnson.
WYDOT told Wyoming News Now that $12.2 million in 5311 funding was awarded for this fiscal year, but for the next one that starts October 1, only $8.9 million will be given.
One recipient of 5311 funds is the Worland Senior Center, which operates "Van-Go" public transportation.
Executive Director Wendy Fredricks says 50% of the 5311 is used for their transportation budget, stating while they aren't seeing a change in their own budget for FY27, cuts matter.
"Something comes up, we can be pretty adaptive to that, and that's great. But will we be able to sustain that with any more cuts? Probably not," she said.
But steps are being taken to fight this situation. WYTRANS requested a one-time appropriation of $3.2 million dollars from the Wyoming Transportation Commission to keep many of these agencies afloat in their current capacities.
“It's to help them stay where they're at. If they lose any of the funding, if they don't receive this extra 3 million to kind of help bridge that gap, we'll see a lot of programs decline," said Johnson.
Johnson said the WYTRANS board feels if communities back the statewide support, the appropriation will go through.
"If we get enough people behind it to support it, we will be heard and hopefully have that funding approved. If that's not, it's going to cause a very much a back step in transit programs throughout the state," said Johnson.
Republished with permission from Wyoming News Now, a TV news outlet covering the Cheyenne and Casper areas.
