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Transit Funding Belongs in Transportation Budget
Conference committee
compromise puts funds at risk in GRF
By Amy Hanauer and Zach
Schiller, Policy Matters Ohio
Special to The Truth
In the 2010-11 state budget,
legislators and the governor began moving transit funding to
the Transportation budget from the General Revenue Fund,
where annual allocations had been steadily shrinking,
putting Ohio near the bottom among states in transit funding
per capita. Since then, policymakers of both parties have
funded transit in the Transportation budget, where it has
grown steadily. Last night, a conference committee of House
and Senate members removed transit from the transportation
budget altogether. Policy Matters Ohio Senior Researcher
Amanda Woodrum issued the following reaction (https://t.e2ma.net/click/vay7lk/bvwsuvc/v2jzr2c):
“Instead of funding transit
through the Transportation Budget, where it belongs, the
conference committee increased transit funding in Ohio’s
General Revenue Fund to $70 million. This is less than half
of the $150 million a year recommended in the Ohio
Department of Transportation’s 2015 Transit Needs Study (https://t.e2ma.net/click/vay7lk/bvwsuvc/bvkzr2c),
but substantially more than the meager amount awarded in the
previous biennial budget ($39.5 million) and more than what
Governor DeWine had recommended.
Transit should be a line
item in the transportation budget. Ohio needs a balanced
approach that provides multiple options to getting where we
need to go. Our transportation system should be more than
just roads and highways. We also need affordable,
accessible, environmentally-friendly transportation options
like public transit, passenger rail, and bikeable, walkable
streets.
Consider this: $70 million a
year is about 2 percent of the $7.4 billion two-year
Transportation Budget. The federal transportation budget is
more balanced with an 80/20 split between roads and public
transit.
The governor proposes to
spend $527 million on school busing each year, to give Ohio
school children a ride to and from school each day eight
months a year. School districts recently testified (https://t.e2ma.net/click/vay7lk/bvwsuvc/rnlzr2c)
that they need more than this. If $527 million isn’t enough
to get children to school, how can $70 million be enough to
get everyone else in Ohio everywhere else they need to go?
State allocations to transit
have slowly but steadily increased over the past few
budgets, a victory for riders. But the General Revenue Fund
is a precarious place for transit funding. In previous
decades, public transit steadily declined as a line in the
GRF where it competed with other important demands like
health care, education, and economic development. Public
transit doesn’t win that battle. There is no guarantee even
that these funds will remain intact while the General
Assembly finalizes the GRF budget between now and June.
A larger allocation for
transit, while not enough, is a win for riders, for
employers, for workers and for people who can’t or don’t
drive. But this allocation is for transportation. It belongs
in the Transportation budget.”
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