The story
Originally formed as the Capital Transit Corporation by the City of Baton Rouge, the system came to be known as the Capital Area Transit System in 2004 during a re-branding of the agency. CATS was later defined by an act of the Louisiana Legislature in 2005. The act established the transit agency and dictates its governance but did not create any revenue source for CATS. Ballot measures to create tax revenue for the system failed to pass in 2009 and 2010, and attempts to reduce service further and increase fares were rejected by the Metro Council, leaving CATS facing a budget shortfall that would have resulted in a complete system shutdown by midyear 2012. CATS finally found stable funding that same year and avoided shutdown when voters in the cities of Baton Rouge and Baker approved a property tax increase.
From Wikipedia’s article on Capital Area Transit System, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4