Public transit needs a future - The governor would shift funds to other uses. Here's one way to pump some back.
FOR ANYONE who endures Los Angeles' endless rush hour, this year's state budget negotiations are hurling California toward some crucial choices: Do we raid public transit funds -- even as we strive to reduce traffic congestion and combat global warming? Do we shift the state's transportation funding priorities away from freeways toward subways, light rail and busways?
California voters understand the depth of our transportation crisis and how to work our way out of it: According to a recent poll, voters now consider public transit the solution to our congestion woes by a margin of 3 to 1.
It is surprising that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is bucking this trend, especially given his efforts to slow climate change. The governor's proposed budget would swipe $1.3 billion from public transit next year. Worse, he has proposed taking $600 million in bonds voters recently approved for new transit projects and using that to backfill funding for those already in the pipeline.
Just the threat that the governor's proposal might be adopted is affecting transportation decisions: This month, the California Transportation Commission may postpone allocating the $314 million necessary to complete the first phase of Los Angeles' Exposition Line, the much-anticipated light rail project between downtown and Culver City.
The $1.3-billion raid of transit funds -- strongly supported by Republican legislators -- is the biggest device the governor has proposed to balance his budget. Given the amount at stake, all sides will have to compromise. To limit cuts to indigent children and blind and disabled people, for instance, some of the governor's huge hit to transit may have to stand. But there is much we can do to prevent consigning ourselves to perpetual gridlock.
A solution centers on a pool of funds known as the "spillover," which grows when gasoline prices jump, and its potential relationship to Proposition 42, the California initiative mandating that all gas sales tax money be spent on transportation.
Established under Gov. Ronald Reagan, the spillover is a fund based on the amount by which gasoline sales tax revenue exceeds the amount generated by the sales tax on all other goods. By law, all spillover money is to be spent only on public transit, under the premise that when gas prices are high, buses and trains are more important than ever and cost more to operate. This year, however, as part of his $1.3 billion budget-balancing scheme, the governor proposes to siphon off hundreds of millions of spillover dollars.
