PROVIDENCE — The Rhode Island Public Transit Authority’s board of directors decided to a delay a vote on proposed cuts to the agency’s service that had been scheduled for Thursday morning.

The board’s decision to postpone the vote came after Gov. Daniel McKee sent a letter to the body asking it to consider a new proposal that better balances “new revenue strategies with targeted reductions to low-performing routes.”

Some of the letter’s suggestions include reducing service on routes with lower ridership, decreasing management and administration costs, maximizing federal funding, and increasing fares.

The plan RIPTA announced at a board meeting late last month included cuts to most of its lines, including those with the lowest ridership, because the agency is facing a multimillion-dollar budget deficit.

A recent efficiency study performed at the behest of the governor and General Assembly showed RIPTA has lower administrative costs compared to its counterparts in other states and fares that are comparable to other transit systems.

RIPTA CEO Christopher Durand said the agency has been and would continue to explore these options.

Any layoffs will be spread throughout the authority, and a fare increase analysis has already been completed — and shows the agency would make a few million dollars in revenue each year — he said. Federal funding is something RIPTA often tries to utilize, but it usually comes with very specific restrictions.

To make up the $10 million still needed to fill in the agency’s deficit in the coming fiscal year, Durand said changes to service need to be implemented by Oct. 1.

He said although he has spoken with the governor’s team since the proposed cuts were announced, Durand didn’t know the letter would be sent to the board Thursday morning, just before a special meeting to vote on the cuts was about to begin.

“These are challenging times,” Rhode Island Department of Transportation director and RIPTA board chair Peter Aliviti said. “These are also exciting times.”

Aliviti said increasing the agency’s “efficiency” would make it a more suitable recipient for more funding in the future.

“We’re not going to find the $10 million,” Norman Benoit, another board member, said. “We’re stuck between a rock and a hard place.”

He said he believes the funding gap needs to be plugged temporarily so the agency can have time in the next year to implement some of the findings of the efficiency study.

Otherwise, he said the cuts would lead to a “generational change in the transit system.”

“Once you have cuts of this magnitude, the death spiral will definitely start,” Benoit added.

Riders and advocates who spoke at the meeting, which was held even though the vote on the cuts was delayed, expressed gratitude for more time to make schedule adjustments but frustration that cuts are still on the table.

“Reading this, it made me mad,” RIPTA rider Lauren Martinez said of McKee’s letter. 

Martinez especially took issue with the governor’s statements about his obligations to taxpayers as justification for looking to “right size” the authority.

“Riders and taxpayers are one and the same,” Martinez said, before ripping a copy of the letter in two. 

Samantha Maar, a rider who takes RIPTA to get to and from graduate school, said the cuts will impact her ability to get to class in the fall.

Although she was upset for herself, she started to tear up when talking about the bus driver she sees on her typical route, one that is on the chopping block. 

“Why can’t we find the money?” Maar asked.