2008 State Budget Adopted
The Legislature completed work on the 2008 state budget by the October 31 deadline and Governor Granholm has signed into law the legislation. While there is a budget adjustment cut of $5 million from the Comprehensive Transportation Fund (CTF), this is significantly lower than some early projections. MDOT has made a commitment not to remove any additional funding from the Local Bus Operating (LBO) line item (the state’s main support for local transit system daily operations) to balance the necessary cuts in the CTF. In light of the state’s severe economic situation, this is a beneficial result for the state’s public transportation agencies. However, due to increased costs and no new total state dollars going to the LBO line item, transit agencies will still see their percentage of state support continue to drop to dangerous low amounts. All in all, though, this is a generally positive outcome for the state’s public transit agencies in the current state budget deliberations.