U.S. PIRG strongly criticized
President Bush’s proposed 2009 budget for reducing transit spending and raiding
the Mass Transit Account at a time when national trends show the need for
aggressive new investment in public transportation. The President’s FY09 budget
proposed cutting $202 million from transit spending and transferring $3.2
billion from funds dedicated to transit.
“There is a perfect storm of
trends that should favor far more investment in public transportation, not less.
We’ve got everything from worsening oil dependency and urban traffic congestion
to rising gas prices and a booming demand for public transit,” said John
Krieger, a transportation advocate at U.S. PIRG. “Moving in the wrong direction
is tremendously irresponsible.”
President Bush faces a
difficult situation in transportation finance since the administration has long
ignored an impending shortfall in the Highway Trust Fund which the Treasury
Department estimated last August would face a $4.3 billion shortfall in the
beginning of 2009. The trust fund is primarily financed by federal gas taxes which
have lost value since last raised in 1993. The Mass Transit Account is similarly
expected to go into deficit beginning in 2010, even without the proposed raid
on its accounts. Shifting the money from transit to highways would merely hide
the shortfalls until after Bush leaves office.
The Department of
Transportation has spent more on highway projects than originally authorized in
the 2005 transportation act (SAFETEA-LU) which expires at the end of 2009.
Spending on public transportation projects, which face more strenuous
restrictions and higher matching requirements by states, has meanwhile fallen
below those authorized amounts.
With more than 10 billion
trips taken annually, the growth rate of public transportation has outpaced the
growth rate of the population and vehicle miles traveled on our nation’s roads
over the past decade. According to a Zogby poll released last month, a majority
of Americans (53%) say they would use mass transit if it were easily available
where they live and work. Forty-seven percent (47%) of those who travel alone
by car to work hold the same opinion.
America’s economic competitors such as Europe, Japan and China have invested heavily in
high-speed rail which connects population centers and avoids the need for
expensive airport and highway expansion. Bush’s budget would cut the budget of
Amtrak, the country’s major intercity rail network by about 40 percent ($525
million dollars) from its current levels.
“Bush’s
proposal is like taking your star quarterback out of the game because the defense
is giving up too many points” said Phineas Baxandall, a Senior Tax and Budget
Analyst for U.S. PIRG. “Solving America’s
transportation problems on the back of public transportation just doesn’t make
sense. These investments are key to meeting our nation’s future challenges.”
