According to this article from Ben Wear in the Austin American Statesman CMTA is if financial wows. What a minute, is that what this article says, I am not sure. You read it and decide. In any case at the same time CMTA was seeing the revenues fall they were throwing money out like it was Christmas on rail, consultants, marketing and lots of nonsense that had nothing to do with its core services. Lets just watch the next few months what "watching costs" means for CMTA. I predict that it means they will be spending more millions on rail, and questionable hired advisors.

Capital Metro, like the rest of America, had a bad fall.

Falling sales tax receipts, falling ridership, falling fare revenue. Fortunately, as a business that uses a lot of fuel, the transit agency also saw sharply falling diesel costs. The result, at least for now, is that the agency expects no layoffs or reduced bus service.

Capital Metro, which depends on its 1 percent sales taxes for about 70 percent of its income, has seen tax revenues that were lower than the same time last year for three straight months. The tax revenue for the first quarter of its fiscal year was 4.3 percent below the same period a year earlier.

Meanwhile, ridership on the agency's regular "fixed route" buses — after a spring and summer gasoline price spike had the effect of packing many rush hour buses — was off 6.6 percent in December from the same month a year earlier, as gas prices below $2 a gallon sent folks back to their cars. November ridership, when there was a three-day strike, was 15 percent below November 2007.

Fare revenue, although well above last year's because of a 50 percent price increase in October, will be about 7 percent below budget predictions under the current trend.

The agency had predicted sales taxes would increase 3 percent in the fiscal year that began Oct. 1. Now the agency expects about $16.4 million less in overall revenue than it predicted in September. At the same time, Capital Metro is predicting that diesel fuel costs will be $9.4 million below budget, or about 41 percent. The agency is paying about $1.50 a gallon for diesel rather than the $3.60 a gallon predicted in its budget.

"The fuel is saving us, big-time," Chief Financial Officer Randy Hume said Wednesday.

The net effect is that Capital Metro expects to have about $31.4 million left after operating costs, rather than the $37.5 million predicted in the budget. That would be enough to cover the $28.8 million in capital projects the agency board approved in the budget.

Hume said the agency has put off some capital spending — replacing a parking lot at headquarters, some computer projects, consulting expenses — and is otherwise watching costs. The current budget had projected adding nine full-time positions this year.