The Mobile City Council voted unanimously to approve a fiscal year 2016 budget that trims spending on the city’s public bus system while steering more money toward tourism promotion.
Council members agreed to cut $703,640 from the WAVE Transit bus system’s budget, using part of that money to help fund an $832,000 increase for convention and tourism spending. The overall WAVE budget has fallen from about $6.76 million in fiscal year 2014 to roughly $5.5 million heading into fiscal year 2016.
Mayor Sandy Stimpson said the bus system’s route structure has gone largely unchanged for more than two decades and that Mobile spends far more on public transit than comparable Alabama cities. Figures presented during budget discussions showed Mobile’s transit spending topped $6.8 million in the prior year, more than double what Montgomery spends and roughly four times Huntsville’s transit budget.
The routes have not been changed in 22 years, Stimpson told reporters after the vote, adding that riders themselves recognize the system needs an overhaul. When we compare ourselves with other cities, we are way behind.
Councilman Joel Daves, who chairs the council’s finance committee, backed the reduction, saying the city has been asking other departments to operate with tighter budgets and that public transit should not be exempt. City officials did not detail how the cut would affect bus routes or service levels, and the transit system’s general manager did not respond to requests for comment.
On the winning side of the budget ledger, the Boys and Girls Club of South Alabama received an additional $35,000 to launch a summer youth program along the Dauphin Island Parkway corridor, an area officials said has gone without dedicated youth programming for years. Councilman C.J. Small pushed for that funding.
The Mobile Bay Convention and Visitors Bureau also came out ahead, receiving $352,000 in new funding for a rebranding and marketing push aimed at drawing more visitors to the city, plus roughly $98,000 in previously unspent funds originally earmarked for the BayFest music festival, which organizers canceled the prior week. The Arthur R. Outlaw Convention Center and Events Mobile also saw budget increases as part of the tourism-focused shift.
City leaders framed the transit cut not simply as a reduction but as a chance to rethink how Mobile delivers public transportation. Stimpson said the coming year offers an opportunity to study the system’s routes and costs in detail before deciding on longer-term changes.
The fiscal year 2016 budget passed with full council support, reflecting broad agreement among members that tourism investment and transit reform both deserved attention, even as the two priorities pulled city dollars in different directions.