POMPANO BEACH - Tri-Rail will limp along for another year without any cuts to its schedule.
The board that oversees the commuter train voted Friday morning to tap into $8 million in county gas tax money to avoid drastic cuts in service this fall.
The money is normally used to pay for things like locomotives, new cars and station improvements. Instead, it will be spent just to keep the trains running.
Tri-Rail's budget is taking a $9 million hit next year because Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties plan to cut their annual subsidies used to run the trains.
Broward County Commissioner Josephus Eggelletion, Tri-Rail's board chairman, cast the lone "no" vote against using the gas tax money to fill the budget hole.
Eggelletion said dipping into capital improvement money won't solve Tri-Rail's long-term funding needs. Doing so, he added, will give state lawmakers another excuse not to approve a dedicated funding source for the train, such as a $2 tax on rental cars.
Only once in the past seven years has the Legislature approved dedicated funding for Tri-Rail, only to see then-Gov. Jeb Bush veto it.
"All of a sudden you think next year [the Legislature] is going to say yes?" Eggelletion said. "You're going to get duped."
Miami-Dade County Commissioner Bruno Barreiro said he couldn't vote to cut service, even if the choice to use capital improvement money for operations until permanent funding is found is hard to swallow. "The public perception is that there is money in the bank," he said. "You've got to use it all up."
While riders don't want to lose service, they also say passenger cars need to be upgraded or replaced.
"What I don't see anyone discussing is that the trains have been breaking down for the last couple of weeks because of the heat," said Steven Daun of Boca Raton, who rides the train on weekdays to Miami.
"Many of the air conditioners in many of the cars either don't work or circulate warm air. Tri-Rail has become the epitome of what mass transit shouldn't be."
Tri-Rail Executive Director Joseph Giulietti said next year's $161 million capital improvements budget is unaffected because the money that's being shifted to cover day-to-day operating expenses was never appropriated. That means projects such as a new parking garage at the Fort Lauderdale Airport Station and the purchase of new locomotives and cars will still go forward.
But in future years, Tri-Rail can't continue raiding capital improvement money because it needs that cash to apply for state and federal grants for big capital projects.
Without additional cash for operations, Tri-Rail faced slashing the number of weekday trains from 50 to 30 and canceling all service on weekends and holidays starting Oct. 5.
Federal transit officials have warned Tri-Rail that it would lose a $256 million federal grant if service is reduced. Tri-Rail agreed to run at least 48 weekday trains and some rush-hour trains every 20 minutes when it received the grant to build a second track several years ago.
Michael Turnbell can be reached at mturnbell@sunsentinel.com, 954-356-4155, 561-243-6550 or on Twitter @MikeTurnpike.