Last night, the Centre Region Council of Governments (COG) voted to refer the preliminary Centre Area Transportation Authority (CATA) 2005-2006 budget to local municipalities for consideration.

The motion to hand off the budget recommendation to local municipalities passed with 13 members in favor, nine against and two abstentions.

Three items relating to the cost of certain bus routes were removed from the recommendation by an amendment.

COG member Jack Jenkins said Executive Director of Administration Jim Steff assured him that the items will still make it to the municipalities for consideration.

Harris Township Supervisor Christopher Lee said he was concerned with the recent decrease in CATA ridership as a result of cheaper commuter lot parking.

"When you make parking easier and cheaper, like near the Bryce Jordan Center, less people ride the bus and more people drive cars," he said. "This causes more traffic and more damage to the roads that are off campus."

However, Penn State's COG liaison Dan Sieminski said he has a hard time believing that CATA ridership is dropping just because of the parking near the Bryce Jordan Center.

COG member Jeffrey Kern said COG needs to study how much the decrease in ridership really costs in terms of lost fares and increased traffic.

The budget recommends that the university pay $81,651 for the CATA operating budget, a 5 percent increase from 2004-2005, and $13,015 for the CATA capital budget, a slight decrease from last year.

The overall proposal for CATA's operating budget would increase by 5 percent, from $358,463 to $376,386.

After the municipalities discuss and make changes to the budget in May, COG will consider those changes before referring the final budget back to the municipalities.

The municipalities will then vote to authorize their share of CATA funding in June.