CCTgirl talks transit funding

Now, in my completely untechnical, I-think-I-get-this-sort-of fashion, I'm going to tackle that whole transit funding issue as it pertains to Georgia and MARTA.  I do not work in transit, or the government, so I'm not an expert.  But I think it needs to get out there, and since I'm trying to add to the advocacy world, this kind of stuff is important.

So, this started because I got a phone call from CV, my new lawyer-type friend, who wanted to inform me of my inaccuracies in my earlier funding post?  Inaccuracies?  I actually stole that stuff from my lobbyist-type friend, so I thought it was at least semi-accurate, if not without a propaganda.  And besides, Two would tell me if I got it wrong, right?   But CV went on to explain that I was part right, but that the game had changed.

See, MARTA is asking for access to its own capitol funds to keep itself in operation.  What CV was saying is that due to new federal guidelines regarding safety measures, stemming from that accident in DC (way to screw it up for all of us, WMATA), that MARTA was burning through that reserve and it wouldn't be enough to save it.  CV said this is the talk down at the legislature.

Well heck.  How had I not heard about this?  First I asked my favorite lobbyist, and he had no idea what I was talking about.  So then I asked Two, who said CV was right, but that I really needed to ask One.  One said that MARTA eis using funds to work on those safety regulations, but that this was an oversimplification of the situation, and that there is still money to help out MARTA, and, of course, they still need access to it.  But like I mentioned before, this will only get them through the next fiscal year, then they're broker than broke with no back-up plan, which is why we ned new transit funding.

Then the question remains, where is this funding going to come from?  Yesterday, republicans came out saying that they don't support a constitutional amendment to create a sales tax  for the funding.  You can read about that at the ajc:

GOP lawmakers abandon November vote on transportation sales tax

Instead, they favor new district, once again, making it a metro problem.

But it seems like this is our one shot to get things right, folks are going to be reluctant to keep going through this session after session, so we  have to make sure that we get funding that will support transit well into the future.  The Saporta Report has a really great take on that here:

If we can't do it right, maybe we should put the breaks on new transportation funding

And if I got it wrong, let me know!