Where to next?
The federal stimulus package has been resolved and is now signed into law. Soon the money will be flowing to the states for infrastructure investment, including public transportation improvements. Here in Michigan, public transit systems should expect to see a healthy infusion of new funding for capital projects, facilities and buses. On the urban side, more than $100 million is targeted while on the rural side the funding totals out at more than $20 million.
So that settles everything right? We can just sit back and wait for the federal funds to flow! Not by a long shot!
The federal stimulus package, despite being a healthy shot in the arm, does nothing to resolve the greater problems of dwindling state support for operational funding for public transportation. So what to do? Where do we go next?
Advocates and policy-makers should now take up the recommendations contained in the Transportation Funding Task Force report of last fall. (Read it here: http://www.michigan.gov/documents/mdot/MDOT_TF2_Entire_Report_255609_7.pdf
The TF2 made several important suggestions for the future needs of public transportation statewide. It is time to take the recommendations seriously and act upon them.
Public transportation investment is an economic development tool with a far-reaching impact that state policy-makers have failed to acknowledge for far too long. The time to move forward legislatively is now.
–Clark Harder
Executive Director
Michigan Public Transit Association