ITHACA, N.Y. — Cornell University increased its financial contribution to Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit (TCAT) from $31,000 to $280,000 after a series of negotiations with representatives from the City of Ithaca and Tompkins County.
The agreement comes as a relief to city and county officials, as well as TCAT leaders.
Cornell University, the City of Ithaca, and Tompkins County are TCAT’s three financial sponsors. TCAT management initially requested an additional $500,000 from its three underwriters on top of the roughly $1 million each already contributes annually.
TCAT management said the steep funding increase was needed to avoid major service cuts and maintain financial stability. Costs have swelled at TCAT in the post-pandemic economy. TCAT’s expenditures have grown by about 55% since 2017. Its projected 2026 budget is around $23.2 million.
The city’s Common Council and the county legislature both approved funding for TCAT’s full $500,000 ask. When Cornell’s initial offer of $31,000 came to light on Nov. 5, it sent officials in local government reeling.
Cornell, the county, and the city are required to make equal underwriter contributions to TCAT. Cornell’s offer of $31,000 would have forced the city and county to contribute the same, which would threatened to cause drastic cuts to TCAT’s service.
However, the additional $280,000 from each of the underwriters will allow the transit agency to avoid service cuts. Each underwriter is slated to contribute about $1.3 million to TCAT in 2023. The agency will have to draw from its reserve funds in order to meet a budget deficit.
While short of the $500,000 ask, TCAT General Manager Matt Rosenbloom-Jones said in an interview that the additional funding will allow the bus system to maintain service levels throughout 2026.
“This is a win for TCAT,” Rosenbloom-Jones said. “It’s not everything that we wanted, but sometimes in this environment you have to compromise.”
TCAT was already projected to run a budget deficit in 2026, losing about $1.6 million. If TCAT’s 2026 budget projections remain the same, that deficit would grow to about $2.5 million with the new underwriter contribution agreement.
TCAT has a fund balance of about $11.7 million, of which $8.7 million is uncommitted cash, according to transit system management.
TCAT will be able to dip into these reserve funds to meet its budget deficits, but the deficit issues will become a more severe problem in 2027 and 2028, said Rosenbloom-Jones. “The long-term problem is that because we’re not getting the full $500,000 ask there is this structural deficit that TCAT is facing.”
Cornell upped its contribution offer after a series of back-and-forths between representatives from Cornell, the city and the county.
Kyle Kimball, Cornell’s vice president for university relations, said in a statement that Cornell extends thanks to Mayor Robert Cantelmo and Alderperson Clyde Lederman for “restarting the negotiations that put us on this path to resolution.”
“Cornell is fully committed to ensuring TCAT is put on a path to financial sustainability,” Kimball said. “We are pleased to have come to an agreement that greatly enhances TCAT’s public disclosure, communication with its underwriters, and provides a pathway to begin strengthening its finances.”
Lederman, a Cornell senior who will step down from council at the end of the year, helped restart negotiations between the city, county, and Cornell.
Lederman said he didn’t take Cornell’s initial offer of $31,000 in “bad faith,” and that the recent negotiations reestablished the “shared interests in TCAT, especially in its long-term fiscal stability.”
“I feel optimistic because even though TCAT faces long-run fiscal challenges, this shows that the parties recognize shared interests and are willing to communicate candidly in order to meet challenges that we all share,” Lederman said.
The Ithaca Voice reviewed the terms of the agreement between the three underwriters. The $280,000 addition to the underwriter payment was called a “one-time increase” and is not guaranteed to be renewed next year.
TCAT is required to post financial and ridership information from its board of directors meetings online. That information is shared at the board’s monthly public meetings and has been made available upon request.
Cornell and TCAT will also open negotiations in 2026 for the university’s bus pass program, which is separate from the underwriter contributions.
Under the program, Cornell pays about $3.3 million to TCAT to cover the cost of riding TCAT buses for faculty, staff, and first-year students. Second-year students and onward ride for free on weekends and after 6 p.m. on weekdays. Around 70% of TCAT ridership is associated with Cornell.
Cornell agreed to renegotiate the agreement in early Fall 2026, with a plan to have a deal settled before TCAT needs to prepare its 2027 budget.
At $3.3 million, the bus pass program is a significant revenue line for TCAT, but the payment amount has remained flat for years while TCAT’s operating costs have steadily risen.
Meanwhile, ridership levels have lagged behind pre-pandemic levels.
Data presented by TCAT management showed that ridership has grown by about 8% in 2024, and appears to be on track to grow by over 8% in 2025, bringing TCAT ridership to its highest levels since the COVID-19 pandemic threw service into chaos. Ridership remains about 11% below 2019 levels.
Ridership generates revenue for TCAT not just through service fees, but also through New York State Operating Assistance (STOA) funding.
STOA is doled out to transit agencies across the state based on a formula that considers a transit system’s ridership and miles travelled. A drop in ridership could threaten the amount of STOA funding TCAT is eligible to receive, which is projected to add up to about $7.2 million or around 32% of TCAT’s proposed 2026 budget. STOA is the single largest source of revenue for TCAT.
State officials have continued to distribute STOA funding based on the transit system’s pre-pandemic ridership levels. It’s unclear when that may change, but when it does, TCAT officials hope to see service levels fully recovered.
Update (11/20/2025): This article was updated following publication to include comments from Alderperson Clyde Lederman.
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