40 Jobs to Be Cut to Keep Current Bus Service : Budget: Move will help OCTA narrow an expected $15-million deficit when it begins shifting funds to county.

The Orange County Transportation Authority will eliminate 40 jobs next July to help keep bus service at current levels and narrow an expected budget shortfall when the agency begins diverting revenue to help pay for the county’s bankruptcy, officials said Monday.

Spokesman Bill Hodge said the job cuts, which are expected to result in a $2-million savings, will come from administrative staff positions. Because some positions are unfilled, only about 20 employees are expected to be laid off, while others may be transferred to other jobs, Hodge said.

The cuts were approved at Monday’s OCTA board meeting. The directors took action to offset the loss of $38 million in Measure M transit-tax revenue the Legislature is shifting to county government to help pay for the county’s bankruptcy recovery.

The money will be transferred July 1, and identical transfers of $38 million will be made annually for 15 years. In exchange, the county is surrendering $23 million annually in gas-tax revenue to OCTA for 15 years, beginning in 1997, leaving the transit agency with a $15-million annual shortfall until July 2013.

To keep 1996 bus operations at current levels, as the Legislature instructed OCTA to do, directors voted to reallocate $34.4 million earmarked for the Intermodal Transportation Center across from Disneyland and an environmental study for a privately financed tollway running down the middle of the Santa Ana River, called the 57 Freeway extension project.

On Monday, directors also voted to save additional funds by postponing the replacement of buses for two years. Normally, the agency replaces a bus after 12 years but will now wait 14.

“The idea is that by deferring capital purchases and laying off some employees, we can deal with the $38-million hit next year without cutting bus service at all,” said John Standiford, OCTA spokesman.

Directors also voted to transfer $68 million in non-Measure M funds from a commuter rail program to a newly created bus operations account. Another $4.9 million will be transferred from other accounts for bus operations, along with $800,000 from state transit funds.

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Each of the reallocations, which total $73.7 million, is a one-time transfer to help pay for future bus operations. The money will be put in a special bus-operations account for 14 years, which transit agency officials said will generate about $8 million in interest yearly.

OCTA buses carry about 50,000 passengers every weekday, and the bus program currently has an annual budget of $113.1 million, of which $24.6 million comes from fares.

Also Monday, OCTA directors voted to study a possible consolidation with the Transportation Corridor Agencies, which is responsible for planning, designing, constructing and operating three tollways in South County.

The consolidation proposal offered by director Tom Wilson caught some members by surprise. Staff members are expected to return with a preliminary report early next year.

Meanwhile, the Board of Supervisors will be asked at today’s meeting to approve a feasibility study to allow private companies to compete for bus service in the county. Supervisors Don Saltarelli and Jim Silva will ask the board to authorize staff members to initiate the study.

They cited the “lack of competition from the private sector” in public transportation in asking for the study.