Photo by M.V. Jantzen

Not that it wasn’t expected, but it looks like a budget shortfall caused by recent drops in ridership might leads to another increase of fares on Metro. All the details are here.

Fenty Offers Plan to Close Budget Gap: Mayor Adrian Fenty has proposed a number of ideas to help close a $200 million budget gap for this year, writes the Examiner. The ideas include $99 million in cuts for various agencies and $85 to $100 million in redirection of funds from specific areas to the general fund. Some members of the D.C. Council have already expressed skepticism over the proposals, while others are angry that only City Administrator Neil Albert would be on hand to discuss them at a hearing today.

Union Officials Blast Response to Storm: A number of union officials have strongly criticized Mayor Fenty’s response to the recent snow storms, pointing out that he should have declared a state of emergency and relied more heavily on federal assistance, reports the Post. The chiefs for the unions representing paramedics and police say Fenty should have relied more heavily on the city’s emergency management agency and should not have opened the District government on February 8 and 9 while the federal government remained shuttered.

Metro Not Running Well, Report Finds: If you thought your train was later than usual in 2009, you were right. According to the Examiner, a report has found that after last year’s deadly crash on the Red Line, trains have been arriving late more often. From July to December, trains arrived on time (which includes trains that arrive two to four minutes late) 89 percent of the time, short of the 95 percent goal Metro sets for itself and the 93.3 percent mark it reached during the same period in 2008. Of all the the lines, delays on the Red Line were worst. Metro officials blame the performance on having to run trains manually.

Briefly Noted:High school football player in Bowie dies during workout … Two internal candidates for Metro’s top job have already turned down offers to take it … Drag racing in Maryland could get you sent to jail … WTOP actually sent someone to Buffalo to find out how they deal with snow … Signage for National Mall voted down.

This Day in DCist: On this day in 2009, Marion Barry was in the hospital for a kidney transplant and Virginia passed a smoking ban for bars. In 2008, the D.C. Council voted against legislation that would have placed limits on how loud protests could get.