Statewide coalition urges legislators to approve multi-year transit funding

MTC this week joined dozens of organizations from around California as signatories to a letter seeking mulit-year transit funding from the Legislature to address financial shortfalls facing operators across the state.

“We ask that your (budget) committees hear this issue to provide a forum for exploring solutions since it is not addressed in the Governor’s proposed FY 2023-24 State Budget, which instead proposes $2 billion in cuts to public transit capital funding that the Legislature approved just last year,” reads the letter.

Addressed to Assembly member Steve Bennett, who chairs Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 3, the letter specifically calls for a multi-year operations funding commitment on a limited term basis to assist California’s transit systems as they recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and develop long-term funding plans, as necessary. Budget Subcommittee No. 3 focuses on the climate crisis, natural resources, energy and transportation.

This is the second time this year MTC has joined with business groups, labor organizations, environmental groups, transit advocates and others to urge the legislators to include a major multi-year commitment to transit operations in the next state budget.