According to recent reports, the Trump administration is trying to cut transit funding to every state, fundamentally changing the way federal transportation policy has operated for more than four decades. The administration has been trying to reduce funding for months by tying grants to birth rates and banning certain types of transportation projects altogether like those related to pedestrian safety and bike lanes. This latest action is both an economic and political disaster: it will worsen the escalating affordability crisis and take away states’ ability to direct transportation dollars to benefit working people.
Donald Trump’s first proposal takes away states’ flexibility to fund transit, limiting their opportunities to address transportation affordability. Starting in 1976, Congress has routinely made the bipartisan decision to give states flexibility to spend federal highway dollars on public transit, and states’ consistent use of this ability shows the demand for transit funding. But in an apparent bid to kill public transit, the Trump administration is proposing to take away this flexibility from state and local governments.
The second proposal would eliminate the mass transit account from the Highway Trust Fund. In 1982, Congress created the transit account, in a move that tacitly acknowledged that more than one-third of people do not drive or have access to a car. The transit account is about 20 percent of the trust fund and sustains many transit services, especially in rural settings. Trump wants to kill it completely.
The administration may think these are targeted attacks on places that did not vote for Trump, but this is misguided. The Climate and Community Institute (CCI) acquired and studied three recent years of data from the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) financial management information system that illustrate how each state is relying on the flexible nature of federal funding. We see that numerous states, including purple…
Auteur: Emmett Hopkins
