The MARTA system in Atlanta faced cuts so steep that officials threatened to eliminate an entire day of service each week. So the Atlanta Regional Commission, an intergovernmental planning agency, agreed [9] to give MARTA $25 million in stimulus funds for "preventative maintenance," which is allowed by the stimulus bill. In return, MARTA will give the ARC $25 million from its own capital projects coffers, money that according to state law could only have been used for new projects.

"It's this crazy round-robin of trying to find ways to actually operate the transit that got funded in the stimulus," says David Goldberg, a spokesman for Transportation for America [10], a national coalition of mass transit backers including foundations, AARP, and environmental, bicycle and pedestrian advocates.

In light of the drastic transit cuts in his state, Rep. Russ Carnahan, D-Mo., has proposed federal legislation [11] that would remove the ban on spending transit money for operations in cities of 200,000 or more. "The congressman has signed on to letters [12] to open up some of the [stimulus] money," says Jim Hubbard, a spokesman for Carnahan, "but this would be a long-term fix."

Carnahan's bill could be a lifeline for agencies like the Sacramento Regional Transit District. California, which is confronting a $24 billion state budget deficit, eliminated public transit funding for the next five years. So SRTD is trying everything, including partnering with Coca-Cola, which will pay to install kiosks with vending machines and advertising at light rail stations.

Despite employee furloughs, a hiring freeze, a MARTA-like shuffling of stimulus money, a fare hike in January – and another one going to a vote on Monday, Sacramento may have to cut service on more than 10 percent of bus routes.

The stopgap provision in the war funding bill will free up $2.2 million in stimulus funds for operating costs. "I would seriously consider using that," said Mike Wiley, general manager and CEO of the SRTD. "The No. 1 priority for us is maintaining our level of service on the street."

-- This story was co-published with Salon.

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