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The
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"Save Our Transit" Coalition shifts into high gear
By Stephen Donahue
There is nothing but bad news these days
for those who rely on public transit in Pittsburgh
and Allegheny County. On June 16 the Port Authority Transit (PAT) will initiate the first of two
cuts in bus service. Major cuts in service and a
fare hike to perhaps $2.00 will take effect in the fall.
The culprit for all this bad news is in
Harrisburg and his name is Governor Mark Schweiker.
It was just one year ago that PAT raised fares to $1.60 and this was due to shortfalls in the
Governor Ridge budget.
Funding for public transit is extremely
complex. There are several streams of revenue that feed public transit and all of them are
presently drying up. Funds for public transit consist
of money for operating the system on a day to day basis and money for capital improvements,
for example like buying more buses. It is the
money for operations that is always running short
and the Governor refuses to increase spending for this.
His budget for the next fiscal year (FY
02-03) has $270,019,000 for statewide public
transit operating money. PAT will get around 25
percent of this.
In the state budget for both FY 00-01 and
FY 01-02 the exact same amount was provided. In other words state spending for operating
public transit in Pennsylvania is staying the same
for the third year in a row. Remember though that this is just one of the funding streams for
running public transit. So while the budget line from
the governor stays the same year after year the
other funding streams are going dry.
The result is a big loss in revenue for
public transit, but the governor's office refuses to
acknowledge this. As a matter of fact the
governor's bootlicks will lie to you and say that public
transit revenues are increasing all the time!
Wading into the muddy waters of public
transit funding is so confusing that few citizens feel
confident enough to jump in. The big-shot bureaucrats at PENNDOT and the Department of
Revenue like it that way. The bad news for the
big shots however is that nobody has to be able to run the PAT or know how to prepare the
Pennsylvania State budget to demand that we have excellent public transit at a fair cost.
The coalition to SAVE OUR TRANSIT
is mobilizing to demand that our elected officials give
PAT the necessary state funding so that
there will be make no cuts in transit service and
no fare increase. We want Governor Schweiker to provide a net increase of $10 million over
what he has in his budget right now for the PAT
during this next fiscal year.
Governor Schweiker is bragging that his
FY 02-03 budget requires no tax increase. He is wrong! A fare hike is a tax hike and it is a
terribly regressive tax hike as well since it is not
based in any way on one's ability to pay but only
on one's need of a public service. The Ridge-Schweiker administration has spent billions
on highways and airports while public transit has continued to take hits. Just imagine what
could be done for the PAT with just a fraction of the
$4 billion that the state is spending on the Mon-Fayette Expressway.
Time is short and we must act now to
save our public transit system. The Save Our
Transit coalition needs the help of all those who ride
the bus and the T. We need the help of those who care about air quality, traffic congestion and
sound economic development for our city and county.
Working groups have been set up to:
conduct a post-card campaign for public transit
funding, start an "Email the Governor" campaign,
write letters to state legislators, establish a
speakers bureau, write letters to the editor, get
resolutions from councils of local municipalities in support
of increased funding for public transit, organize
demonstrations for public transit and more.
We will not accept cuts in public transit
service! We will not accept the second fare hike
in as many years! We must keep Port Authority Transit moving forward. The Save Our
Transit coalition is meeting regularly and actions
have begun. Call the Thomas Merton Center at 412-361-3022 to get involved.
The New People
Table of Contents, May 2002
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