Metro General Manager John Catoe is asking agency department heads to trim their budgets by 5 percent, the second round of cuts he has ordered in preparation for a potentially bleak financial landscape in 2009.
Managers also are being asked to outline what effect a 10 percent budget cut would have on their departments and on Metro riders, according to an e-mail Catoe sent to staff Friday.
“These are difficult times,” Catoe wrote. “The times call for hard choices. We have very specific financial goals to meet, and we must meet them. As we meet those financial goals, we must also meet our service goals. This is not an either-or proposition.”
Catoe earlier this month eliminated 100 vacant administrative positions and ordered severe cuts in discretionary spending, a category that includes such items as consultants, travel expenses and furniture.
Catoe said he was aiming for Metro to have $20 million to $30 million to roll over into the fiscal 2010 operations budget, which goes into effect July 1.
The jurisdictions that fund Metro’s operations budget, which include the District, Arlington County, Alexandria, Fairfax County, Prince George’s County and Montgomery County, Maryland, are all projecting budget deficits and are slashing spending as the crumbling economy drains their tax revenues.
