Topic: Save Public Transit

[Towntalk]

If you're going to quote me westsider, please quote me accurately. I never said that public transportation wasn't a necessity.

Of course it is, and every time a WRTA levy came up I voted for it.

I was simply pointing out that public roads and highways are an absolute necessity. If our road and highway system was privatized you'd be paying a toll every time you went out your door to go to work or anywhere else for that matter.

[westsider]

Roads and highways are necessities.

This statement implies that mass transit is not a necessity.

If they were privately financed, you would be paying a toll every time you stepped out your door, and you'd have no say about what that toll would be.

That was my point.  Rick wants mass transit users to pay "THE COST OF PROVIDING THE SERVICE!" but doesn't mind allowing the government to subsidize the roads and highways he uses.

Roads and highways are one of the fundamental responsibilities of government.  Taxes to maintain roads and bridges are provided both in the gasoline tax and in the license fees.  So I am already paying for the roads that I use. 

So, ODOT collects $3.8 billion each year just from license fees?  (As far as I know, the gasoline tax is just used to help fund the interstate highway system.)

BTW, roads and highways weren't always the responsibility of the government.  The Lincoln Highway was started by a private organization.

[Towntalk]

Jobs supposedly saved or created and what it cost the tax payers.

As you may know, many are questioning the truthfulness of Recovery.gov.

[Rick Rowlands]

What do those numbers mean?

[Rick Rowlands]

Roads and highways are one of the fundamental responsibilities of government.  Taxes to maintain roads and bridges are provided both in the gasoline tax and in the license fees.  So I am already paying for the roads that I use. 

[Towntalk]

Recovery money

13.    Ohio   17,095   10.1%

17th congressional district    229.4   $165,232,615

6th congressional district    224.2   $191,292,584

[Towntalk]

Roads and highways are necessities. If they were privately financed, you would be paying a toll every time you stepped out your door, and you'd have no say about what that toll would be.

I do not begrudge public transportation ... nor do I begrudge the special services that WRTA provides to people.

The point of my post was not to bash needed services that our tax dollars provide ... it's the billions of dollars that are being spent on pork every year, like on the study of the sex life of the common ring worm ... cow flatulance studies ...  etc.

Its things like this that drive me up the wall.

[westsider]

Roads and highways are subsidized by the government.

[Rick Rowlands]

I pay my real cost of my transportation, and that the only cost that I should be required to pay.  I paid for the initial purchase of my truck, license fees, insurance, gas, and maintenance. So what other "real costs" are there?

[westsider]

What am I going to do with a car???  I'm visually impaired, so I couldn't drive if I wanted to.

I'm all for paying the real cost of transportation.  But everyone should pay the real costs, not just mass-transit users.

[Rick Rowlands]

Read "Your Legacy to Your Children" by Towntalk. 

If you want public transit then your ticket price should COVER THE COST OF PROVIDING THE SERVICE!  If it costs WRTA $10.00 to cart your ass from Austintown to downtown, then pay it for crying out loud, or go get your own car.

[westsider]

I saw this on another forum:
http://members.cox.net/corridorscampaign/Save%20public%20transit%20flier.pdf

SAVE PUBLIC TRANSIT!

Your public transportation service to work, school, day care, health care, grocery store and other important local trips is ENDANGERED!

You are not alone. Public transportation services in every city in Ohio are shrinking and fares rising just as the need for jobs access is more more pressing, fuel prices rise, personal incomes fall and our aging population needs public transit more than ever!

- Federal funding still exists to build bus and train facilities but money to run those systems was eliminated a decade ago. The feds say it's up to state and local officials to find the money....

- While other states increased funding for transit, the State of Ohio (the nation's 7th most populous!) reduced public transportation funding by 75 percent since 2001.

- Today, transit funding is less than 1% of the Ohio Department of Transportation's $3.8 BILLION annual budget. State officials say it's up to local officials to find the money....

- Nearly all of Ohio's urban counties are seeing their financial ability to support transit diminish as jobs and residents move to distant new suburbs built near new highways.

While the federal and state governments say they can't afford to support transit, they spend your tax money for new roads to build new suburbs that drain your aging neighborhood of residents and jobs. Your neighborhood deserves better and so do you!  Your access to jobs, food, education, health care and even the voting booth is at stake!

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION IS A CIVIL RIGHTS ISSUE!!!

TAKE A STAND!

Ask: "Please provide more funding for public transit." Then tell them how fewer transit services and/or higher fares affect you.

CONTACT CONGRESS
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

U.S. Senate
Washington, DC 20510
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Ohio House of Representatives
77 S. High St., Columbus, OH 43215-6111

Ohio Senate
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