Transit Forum provides little information from elected officials

Today, about 75 people gathered at the LaGrave Avenue Church to hear from area legislators about their thoughts and commitment to public transportation.

The forum began with Jennifer Kalczuk from the ITP/The Rapid who provided those in attendance with some background information on the current status of transit funding. She mentioned that there is money coming from the State, gas taxes and transit fare sales. Currently about 30% of their operating budget comes from the State.

Under the law ITP is eligible to receive up to 50% of their operating budget from the State, but it has been many years since that has happened. There is also a significant chunk of money coming from the federal government in matching funds for state operations. More details on State and Federal funding for public transit can be found on the website for Michigan Public Transit Association.

Jennifer also mentioned that ridership has been growing in recent years, especially since the ITP was created. Last year there was roughly 9.7 million riders, which includes all of their services.

However, the bulk of the forum was spent listening to the responses from three area elected officials, State Representatives Ken Yonkers, Roy Schmidt and Brandon Dillon. Representative Dave Agema and State Senator Dave Hildenbrand were also invited by unable to attend.

Dave Bulkowski with Disability Advocates of Kent County was the moderator of the forum and asked a series of questions to the state legislators. The first question was, What do you see is the State’s role in transportation infrastructure? Roy Schmidt responded by saying it was to maintain roads, transit and safe streets. Schmidt says that he doesn’t have a problem funding transit because he knows where the money is going, but he didn’t offer any evidence to support this claim.

Rep. Yonkers said that transportation includes airports, roads and bus services. “The State’s responsibility is to make sure that both the planning and the funding are there.” However, Yonkers says that we need to have more emphasis on a cultural transformation, since Michigan is still culturally dependent on car transportation. In fact, Yonkers said that if there is not a good State transportation infrastructure then there will be no economic development or real economic recovery.

How do you see public transportation within the transit structure? How much of it is a priority for you? Rep. Dillon says that the biggest investment is for roads and bridges, roughly 90% of the state budget for transportation. However, he does think that we need to raise the profile of public transit and the role that it plays for development and quality of life. Dillon also said there in no plans to cut existing funding levels for transit from Governor Snyder’s proposed budget.

Schmidt said that even while he was a GR City Commissioner he didn’t fully realize how important transit funding is, especially the model that GR is for the rest of the state. Schmidt says it is extremely important for jobs and general infrastructure.

Yonkers added that the State’s actions determine priorities with the bulk going to roads and bridges, but Yonkers said he is working on changing that. He thinks it is a cultural shift and that it has bi-partisan support. We have to grow grassroots interest and have a vision for what we want. Unfortunately, Yonkers did not provide any specifics or examples of how this cultural shift would take place.

What about the future of rail transit? Yonkers said he recently heard a talk from someone with Meijer who said it is cheaper to move goods via rail across the country than it is to move goods via trucks from Chicago to Grand Rapids. Yonkers said he would love to see a hi-speed rail from Grand Rapids to Lansing. “However, this will be a big battle, because it will require a change in the minds of voters.”

Rep. Schmidt addressed the issue of Amtrak and said he recently heard that the tax investment in Amtrak is nothing compared to the economic development it provides. He says that is not the public perception, but he failed to provide any evidence to support the economic data benefits because of Amtrak.

What about the State budget proposal and does it support transportation needs? All three representatives said they would support Snyder’s proposal and Yonkers feels that even though there are questions on the issue of efficiency that it should not detract from what the State Budget will provide for public transportation.

How else can money be raised or redirected at the State level to end up supporting transit? Schmidt said that they are looking at registration fees because he thinks that revenues will decline from the gas tax because of electric vehicles. When asked how big should the transportation budget be, Rep. Dillon says it is a difficult question to answer and it will have to be determined by the voters. “We don’t have the revenues we need to improve public transit in the state.” He kept saying that it depends on the public support for this, which avoided asking the question about what leadership elected officials could provide to push for increases in public transit. Yonkers stressed the need to “market” public transportation services well if you want people to support increased funding for it.

What about funding at the local level? What options to local systems have to generate funding? Schmidt says he thinks that it comes back to credibility, which is why he supports the May 3^rd Millage. Dillon says he expressed ideas about how to deal with the loss of revenue sharing saying that local governments should have more control on ways to generate revenue if the State is unable and unwilling to provide adequate revenue sharing funds. Yonkers said that he believes in local government and local control. “If we are going to change how we finance the state then we need to give local governments the tools in order to do that. However, if we are talking rail then we need this issue to be a State effort.”

After the legislators finished their comments a few people got up to let everyone know about the upcoming May 3^rd Millage and how people could get involved.

In some ways the forum was a disappointment in that those in attendance did not get to ask questions or voice concerns. Another thing that could have improved the forum would have been to provide some clear information on the voting record of state officials as it relates to transit, which you can access at Vote Smart or Michigan Votes.