Administration
TARC purchased Louisville's Union Station for $2 million in 1977, the year after the former train station had ceased rail operations. The trainyard was replaced with a large maintenance facility for TARC buses and the former train station is now TARC's administrative headquarters. In 2003, TARC did a major remodeling of Union Station for the first time since it purchased the facility. The renovation cost $2.1 million.
TARC is administered by an eight-member board. TARC had a budget of $67.8 million for the 2008–09 fiscal year. Fares only cover about 12% of TARC's operating expenses; the rest is paid for by Jefferson County's occupational tax, federal aid and some other minor sources. The occupational tax is 0.20%, it makes up about two-thirds of TARC's operating expenses in any given year. The actual total varies due to availability of federal grants and fares collected. In 2002, TARC had 710 employees, 460 of whom were bus drivers.
Some funding comes from a transportation trust fund kept by TARC. In 1992, the fund contained $28 million, which a local alderman claimed made TARC the "Cadillac" of America's bus systems, and unsuccessfully proposed raiding it to fund the Louisville Free Public Library. The fund declined from $34 million in 1989 to $13 million in 1994, prompting severe cutbacks and rate hikes that year.
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