Fresh Loaf

Projected MARTA budget shortfall for the current fiscal year, in millions of dollars: 60

MARTA operating expenses for FY09, in millions of dollars: 396

Percentage increase in total MARTA ridership from August 2007 to August 2008: 11.5

Number of years since rail service began in 1979 that MARTA has seen a higher ridership increase: 2

Total annual operating funding MARTA receives from state of Georgia, in dollars: 0

Number of other major metropolitan areas whose public transit agency receives no state funding: 0

Total annual operating funding MARTA receives from the federal government, in millions of dollars: 42

Potential liability faced by MARTA due to lease-back deal with now-collapsed insurer AIG, in millions of dollars: 391

Maximum percentage of revenue from local 1-cent sales tax that MARTA is allowed to spend on system operations: 50

Percentage of MARTA operating costs covered by sales tax revenue: 52

Estimated percentage by which U.S. consumer spending will drop in 2009: 1

Number of years since the U.S. had a bigger slump in consumer spending: 67

Sources: MARTA, ajc.com, Bloomberg

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MARTA CEO and General Manager Beverly Scott, who was recently appointed chair of the American Public Transportation Association, testified before a U.S. House committee today and urged Congress to pass legislation that would inject sorely-needed funds into transit projects across the country.

APTA, Scott says, recently identified 559 “ready-to-go” projects in the United States worth $8 billion that would help create jobs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. She also asked the government step in and examine financial agreements — which  I’ll warn you are rather complex but good to wrap your head around — transit agencies made with companies such as AIG that are in danger of unraveling because of Wall Street’s meltdown.

To read her full testimony, click here. Read about how Georgia specifically could benefit from increased transit investment after the jump.

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THE VISIBLE HAND: Smugness is growing abroad over the global free-market champion — especially under such an anti-regulation Republican administration — essentially nationalizing private corporations to combat its sputtering economy.

PAIN IN THE BANK: Top central banks of the world unite to infuse $247 billion into money markets in an attempt to stave off a global financial meltdown.

GOUGING: The state has subpoenaed at least nine gas stations for price-gouging after Hurricane Ike shut down oil production on the Texas coast.

EUGLENA: A big swath of slimy plant/animal goo is floating down the Oostanaula River toward Rome.

ZONE DEFENSE: Metro Atlanta communities are more often having to deal with abandoned clear-cut lots and subdivisions that developers couldn’t afford to finish, often doing so by revisiting zoning conditions.

CLAYTON: Corrective Superintendent John Thompson meets with SACS president, says he’ll soon unveil the school system’s plan to regain accreditation in the next 12 months.

THE HOOKY CRUMBLES: Nine DeKalb parents have been arrested for educational neglect based on their children’s truancy; police have arrest warrants for 59 people in all, some of whose kids have missed 40-50 days of school.

DOT: Auditors discover the department’s financial situation is even worse than previously thought.

DENNIS QUAID: Visits Falcons practice to promote a movie.

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AIG: U.S. taxpayers save the insurance giant from its own bad investments via the Fed’s historic $85 billion bailout, which, despite its unfairness, was needed to prevent the worldwide financial bedlam that would follow an AIG collapse.

STREET CRED: Wall Street’s free fall has given Obama an opening, but while he does poll better than McCain on the economy, he doesn’t poll as well as a generic Democrat against a generic Republican.

PALIN: Not ready to be Hewlett-Packard CEO, according to former HP chief and McCain economic adviser Carly Fiorina, who then dug herself an even deeper hole by adding that McCain couldn’t lead the company either.

ALDERMAN: The convicted murderer was executed Tuesday for the 1974 killing of his wife.

ERR LIKE A SAILOR: Disgraced former Georgia lawmaker Ron Sailor Jr. is sentenced to 63 months for fraud and money laundering.

FUEL AND FAR BETWEEN: Ike has left the city of Atlanta with just 15 days worth of fuel, prompting the closure of two fueling stations and a plea to city employees to conserve.

STANDOFFISH: A fugitive wanted in a 2006 Atlanta murder is arrested in Chicago after a standoff.

THE YOST IS CLEAR: After being unexpectedly fired by the Brewers, there’s some speculation that former Braves third base coach Ned Yost could end up back in Atlanta.

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