Green Mountain Transit outlines budget shortfalls and asks Essex Junction to review retroactive ADA apportionment change

Green Mountain Transit officials briefed the Essex Junction City Council on Dec. 17 about rising assessments and longer‑term budget shortfalls, and asked the council to approve a change to how ADA paratransit costs are apportioned among municipalities.

GMT’s presenter said that, excluding a failed special assessment, the city’s FY26 assessment would be roughly $285,000 — about a $30,000 (approximately 10%) increase from the prior year — and that the agency’s board published a FY27 deficit of about $840,000. The presenter added the agency expects to reduce that deficit to “under 400,000” with plans still being finalized but warned of a potential FY28 funding gap around $2,000,000 unless new revenue is identified. “That shows a deficit of about $840,000, for the year,” the GMT representative said.

GMT described a proposed revision to the ADA paratransit apportionment formula as an attempt to reduce volatility for municipalities. Under the proposal, 50% of the ADA assessment would be allocated based on the percentage of fixed‑route service a jurisdiction provides and the other 50% would be split with a 50/50 origin‑destination approach so that receiving and originating municipalities share costs. The presenter apologized that parts of the agency’s 2023 assessment reform were implemented without the city’s formal approval and asked for retroactive adoption to July 1, 2024. "I apologize that we enacted assessment reform without asking your approval," GMT said during the presentation.

Councilors pressed staff on the underlying data and the legal implications of making the change retroactive. One councilor raised concerns the change might constitute an impermissible retroactive law and asked the city attorney to weigh in; GMT said trip origin/destination data are tracked by SSTA and committed to providing a breakdown so municipalities can see how the new method would redistribute costs. Several councilors signaled support for smoothing volatility but requested further data and written legal advice before acting.

Outcome and next steps: Councilors voted to table the requested ADA methodology change until the city attorney reviews the retroactivity question and staff provides detailed origin/destination data from SSTA. GMT also informed the council about planned transfers of rural routes to local rural providers (with service transfers in early 2025 windows) and said that refocusing on urban service could require future service reductions unless new revenue sources are found.