An impending shutdown of the federal government won't immediately impact Metro's operations, regional government officials said Monday, but a protracted shutdown could pose problems.
Metro's consumer-level operations – its regionally-managed solid waste systems, natural areas, parks, golf course, cemeteries and visitor venues – won't see any direct impacts from a closure of the federal government.
"While we do receive some federal grant funds, none of those funds are due in the next few months," said Jim Desmond, director of Metro's Sustainability Center. "We are fortunate that the vast majority of our funding is local, coming either from the generous support of the voters of the region who passed both a bond measure and an operating levy to support our work in protecting natural areas, or in the case of solid waste and recycling programs, from the solid waste regional system fees."
A shutdown could pose some headaches for Metro's planning department but probably wouldn't affect operations.
Metro has $6.7 million in federal grants in its budget for the current fiscal year, which runs from July 1, 2013 to June 30, 2014. That’s about 10 percent of all of Metro's general fund revenues. About 45 percent of the revenue for Metro's planning and research departments comes from federal grants.
A memo released by the U.S. Department of Transportation indicated that in the event of a shutdown, grant funding could be cut off.
"No grants, cooperative agreements, contracts, purchase orders, travel authorizations, or other documents obligating funds would be executed," said the memo, dated Sept. 27.
Typically, Metro is reimbursed from the federal government for grant-funded work that's already complete, periodically sending reports detailing grant-funded work before taking the reimbursement. The next such reimbursement is tentatively planned for mid-October.