I think thats 25% spent on "Town, Village, City and County Road Maintenance".
-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] on behalf of Michael D. Barrett Sent: Sat 6/30/2007 11:42 To: [email protected] Subject: [Bikies] Regional Transit Authority and its discontents The recent press accounts of the RTA proposal cite these figures as the modal split for sales tax-generated monies: * 33 percent to be spent on commuter rail service. * 25 percent to be spent on bus service. Currently, the city of Madison operates the Madison Metro bus service. * 25 percent to be spent on town and village roads. * 17 percent to be spent on other rail service. I am in favor of an RTA *as a concept.* But I fear that this proposal will simply become a financial shell game that is ultimately used to build bigger roads and foment sprawl. To keep that from happening, I propose adding these stipulations as a condition of our support for an RTA: 1) TRANSIT FUNDS: That all RTA sales tax-generated funds allotted to transit, bicycle and pedestrian facilities be dedicated *in addition to* current funds spent on these modes; that these monies are matched by localities in a way that matches population and spatial growth of urban service areas. That is, current local monies for transit must not be cut or allowed to stagnate. 2) ROAD FUNDS: That all RTA sales tax-generated funds allotted to roads be dedicated for *maintenance only*. That these new monies cannot be used to allow further expansion of roads, nor can they be used to displace other monies dedicated to road expansion. In sum, these new monies dedicated to roads must be used exclusively for *property tax relief.* 3) That no monies generated from this RTA go to pay for car-oriented transit (i.e., park & rides), that it only goes toward *transit* and transit-oriented development (i.e., villages & town centers around transit stops). None of the money can go toward displacing other monies already dedicated to car-oriented purposes. Now, some will cry that it isn't right that transit gets new monies for expansion while roads & parking lots get nothing new. My answer to them is this: By expanding transit, bike & ped facilities, as well as transit-oriented development, we are, in effect, expanding facilities for cars. How is this so? Every person that shifts over to a bus or a bike, or chooses to live close enough to walk to work makes space on the roadways and parking lots (i.e., reduces congestion and frees up parking spaces) for those who continue to insist on using their global warmers. Thus, transit expansion is good for people who drive. I hate to put it that way, but it is so. But the big point is, the global warmers do *not* deserve the triple benefit of reduced congestion, more parking *and* bigger roads. They are already getting a double benefit with reduced congestion and more free parking spaces. I also worry re: my point 1) that we will find ourselves in a situation where these new monies will be an excuse to allow current monies dedicated to transit to either be cut or stagnate. There is precedent in that back in the mid- late-90s the state pumped up transit spending only to have local governments respond by letting their commitment to transit stagnate. This caught up with the locals in recent budget cycles, however. After that big bump a decade ago, the state's commitment stagnated as well. Combining those stagnant trends with the fuel price spikes, well, it all converged into a big budget mess at the local level--a recent history we all know too well. I don't want to see the same thing happen here, where we allow current transit/ped/bike monies to go stagnant or, worse, get cut. After I posted my snarky comment (on the sasyna list) about the current proposal's shell game that does nothing for bikes, I got an off-list mini-lecture from one of our alders; that I need to propose something that manages the money better. I hope this helps. Also, I consider this to be a working draft and am open to further additions, comment, corrections, etc. But I hope that at least items 1-3 above can serve as a basis for our discussions with the mayor, county exec and other electeds. -Mike P.s. I'm gone all of next week, starting, now.... _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://www.danenet.org/mailman/listinfo/bikies
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