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Marion Area Transit, as you may or may not know, receives most of its operational funding from the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) in the form of grants. These ODOT grants reimburse the city for most of its costs associated with transit.
If you look at the city’s most recent financial audit, from the year 2021, grants accounted for 92.08% of Marion Area Transit’s total revenues of $953,915.
Fares paid by transit riders, meanwhile, accounted for a paltry 7.92%.
Even with all those grant subsidies, Marion Area Transit still lost money in 2021, having total expenses of $993,017.
Fast forward to 2025 and transit spent $1,260,000. That’s an increase in expenses of 26.89%.
Most of that money–approximately 75%– goes towards salaries and benefits for Marion Area Transit employees.
With transit reliant on government subsidies to operate, the city’s current payroll issues threaten to bring the entire Marion Area Transit system to an abrupt halt.
In order for the city to be reimbursed by ODOT grants, it must submit the required paperwork–including accurate salary and benefit data for transit employees– to ODOT by the end of January 2026.
The Marion City Auditor’s office, as most of you probably know, has not been able to pay city workers on time or accurately since the beginning of November 2025, due to its failure to properly implement the city’s new ADP payroll software and to cooperate with other city officials who seek a resolution to the matter.
At the January 12th special meeting of Marion City Council’s finance committee, City Service Director Mike Bodine made the following statement:
“We get our funding through ODOT to support transit. Coming up soon, we have to submit requested documents and requirements as a part of that ongoing support that we get from ODOT. Unfortunately, because of ODOT requiring that we submit documentation for reimbursement, part of that which covers salaries, benefits and overtime, etc., as of today, we’re unable to send the second quarter for invoicing for reimbursement to the city, due to not having the proper accounting and said expenditures. We have tried to get a hold of the auditor’s office a total of four times. Once on 12/18, actually talking to them in person; and emails on 12/29, 01/02 and, the fourth time, on January 7th. I’m just letting council know this ahead of time, because this is how transit runs. If you don’t realize it, transit doesn’t make a lot of money. And thank God, we have the help of ODOT. And right now, we cannot submit the requirements for that, and I fear that could jeopardize us offering transit for our citizens.”
According to Mr. Bodine, the requested payroll data for transit needs to be provided by the auditor to his office at least two weeks prior to ODOT’s deadline at the end of January. His office needs sufficient time to prepare the proper forms that are based on the data supplied by the auditor.
Auditor Miranda Meginness did not attend the meeting, so it is unknown whether or not she will be able to provide the requested data to the City Service Director’s office in time.
As Mr. Bodine stated, should the city not receive these reimbursement funds from ODOT, Marion Area Transit–which is already bleeding money–will likely face a dire future.