The Feb. 3 announcement by the House Ways and Means Committee that its tax title for surface transportation authorization would eliminate the Mass Transit Account of the Highway Trust Fund galvanized not just the public transportation industry, but newspaper editorial boards and cartoonists, interest groups from across the spectrum, and the general public. Thousands of voices have emphasized the unfairness of the proposal and called for the implementation of an amendment proposed by Reps. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Steve LaTourette (R-OH), and Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) to restore dedicated federal funding for public transit—a program originally approved during the Reagan Administration.

As members of Congress returned to their districts for the President’s Day work period, leaders of seven public transportation agencies across the U.S. told the media in a Feb. 22 conference call how losing a dedicated federal funding source would damage their ability to provide efficient and effective service to their communities.

Twenty-five media representatives participated in the call from news organizations including The Washington Post, Bloomberg News, Crain’s Chicago Business, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Wall Street Journal.

“Eliminating dedicated funding is a step backward that would have dire consequences for public transportation,” said APTA President & CEO Michael P. Melaniphy, who convened the conference call. “Millions of people take public transportation every year and this would undercut a public transit system’s ability to move forward with critical capital projects, including making sure our systems are brought up to a state of good repair.” He called the Nadler-LaTourette amendment “crucial for the future of public transportation.”

Speakers on the call were Richard Sarles, general manager and CEO, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA); Joseph J. Lhota, chairman and CEO, New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA); Joyce Eleanor, CEO, Community Transit, Snohomish County, WA; Joseph M. Casey, general manager, Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA), Philadelphia; Joe Costello, executive director, Regional Transportation Authority, Chicago; Will Kempton, CEO, Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA), Orange, CA; and W. Curtis Stitt, president and CEO, Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA), Columbus.

Melaniphy continued: “At a time when gas prices are rising, have we not learned from history? We know that people flock to public transit when gas prices are high. It is ironic and inconsistent that Congress would cut dedicated funding at the very time the public is demanding more transit services.” He also noted: “Our country relies on a multimodal transportation network that includes highways and public transit. Public transit decreases congestion, which makes the entire transportation system work better.”

Among his other efforts, Melaniphy convened a conference call with selected APTA members and LaTourette to discuss strategies for enacting the amendment.

Sarles called the Ways and Means proposal “the first step in the wrong direction.” Following years of underinvestment, he said, WMATA launched the largest capital rebuilding effort in the agency’s history—but elimination of a dedicated federal funding source would mean “difficult choices” in how to use the remaining money and “would affect all services.”

Sarles gave an example: escalator repairs are a systemic problem at Metrorail stations, but they would have to wait behind safety concerns if funds are limited.

“The MTA provides safe, reliable service, but without help from the federal government, it’s hard to keep it that way,” said Lhota. He noted that the enactment of the Mass Transit Account in 1983 helped New York subways recover from chronic disrepair—a situation that might return if the long-standing partnership between the MTA and the federal government is in jeopardy.

Noting that the New York City metropolitan area accounts for 12 percent of the nation’s economic activity and that 85 percent of the region’s commuters use the MTA’s services, Lhota emphasized: “We cannot do without stable, reliable federal support. There is no alternative.”

Eleanor echoed Lhota, saying: “We require some certainty in our funding to stop a catastrophic reversal.” Her system, which provides local routes in the Seattle suburbs and commuter routes into the city, has already cut services because of funding shortfalls—the buses no longer run Sundays or late nights and keep limited hours on Saturdays—and elimination of the Mass Transit Account would equal a new 28 percent funding cut for all public transit systems in the Puget Sound region.

“I was part of the group that worked for this funding 30 years ago,” Eleanor said. “Without it, our systems will deteriorate.”

Casey mentioned another point of financial impact: SEPTA’s bonds could be downgraded if the Ways and Means proposal passes.

“Transit is an essential component of our community; we need more funding, not less,” Casey said. For example, SEPTA recently completed reconstruction of its Market-Frankford rail line, which cost $750 million over five years: “We could not do this without guaranteed funding.”

Costello cited the “devastating impact on Chicago’s regional transit system” that the legislation would cause. “It would pose a critical threat to projects throughout the region—work on stations, bridges, bus replacement—and would make it even more expensive to borrow money for capital projects.” He agreed with Casey about the threat to bond ratings if the funding stream becomes unreliable.

“Our customers chose to tax themselves to support public transportation, with the expectation of support from a federal funding stream,” said Kempton. “Elimination of the Mass Transit Account would undermine this partnership.”

He agreed with other speakers that ending the federal funding source would lead to additional service cuts and layoffs: OCTA receives $58 million per year through the program, which covers 19 percent of its bus operating budget.

Stitt presented another side to the public transit funding story: the state has cut its support 85 percent over the past 10 years. “We would hate to see the nation go in the same direction as Ohio,” he added.

Stitt reported that a local sales tax covers COTA’s operating expenses, but the agency needs federal funding to pay for such capital costs as bus replacement. Noting the agency plans to build a Compressed Natural Gas refueling station while maintaining its fleet in a state of good repair, he said, “Our capital infrastructure is at risk if the Mass Transit Account is eliminated.”

TOLES © 2012 The Washington Post. Reprinted with permission of UNIVERSAL UCLICK. All rights reserved. This editorial cartoon by Tom Toles, which originally appeared Feb. 10, 2012, in The Washington Post, is just one example of the editorial opinions in response to the House Ways and Means Committee's proposal to eliminate the Mass Transit Account of the Highway Trust Fund.

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