FW: Protect Public Transit Tuesday May 20th Lobby Day
Margaret Okuzumi
lobby against large cuts to public transit being proposed by the governor.
You are welcome to join them. See below.
The governor succeeded last year in diverting $779 million from the public
transportation account to pay for school buses and regional transport for
the disabled. These expenses had always been paid for from the general fund
in the past.
If the governor succeeds in diverting the $1.4 billion from public transit
this year as currently posed, we'll be likely to see reductions in public
transit service. In Caltrain's case, which has already been struggling with
rising diesel fuel costs and a budget that has not kept up with inflation,
it could be catastrophic.
Margaret
Subject: Protect Public Transit Tuesday May 20th Lobby Day
Please join TALC and TJWG members on Tuesday, May 20 as we lobby our
legislators in Sacramento and ask them to protect public transit funding in
this year's state budget! We'd love to have you join us. A bus will be
departing from Oakland (7:30am, back returning around 6 pm)
(The bus will also stop at El Cerrito del Norte BART).
Please Contact Ben Lowe if you plan to join us (510-750-3150 ext 306)
b...@transcoalition.org
Thanks
- - -
Published Thursday, May 15, 2008, by the San Francisco Chronicle
Transportation budget will hit public transit
By Michael Cabanatuan
PROPOSAL: The governor's plan calls for spending $13.8 billion on
transportation next fiscal year -- a decrease of less than 1 percent
from his January budget. But the latest plan would take $1.4 billion
from gasoline and diesel fuel sales tax revenue that ordinarily
would go to public transportation and put it in the general fund.
The governor's January proposal suggested taking only half of the
spillover gas tax revenue, then estimated at about $455 million.
WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU: As more drivers are seeking relief from high
gasoline prices by riding public transportation, funding for transit
operators is being siphoned off to help balance the state budget.
Bay Area transit operators will lose tens of millions of dollars,
which could force service cuts or fare increases and is likely to
rule out service increases.
REACTION: "At the same exact time we've learned that mass transit
ridership is climbing and crowding is becoming a problem, gas prices
are rising past $4 and global warming is getting worse -- all reasons
for more people to use transit -- we are faced with brutal cuts,"
said Stuart Cohen, executive director of the Transportation and
Land Use Coalition <http://www.transcoalition.org>. "This is going
to have significant negative impacts on people's commutes, on low-
income communities that rely on transit and on our ability to meet
greenhouse gas reduction goals."
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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