I received the following press release from Ben Ross of Action Committee for Transit:
For Immediate Release
Thursday morning, December 27, 2007
Source: Action Committee for Transit
For more information, call: Ben Ross at 301-913-2849.
TRANSIT ADVOCATES BLAST PROPOSAL TO DROP RIDE-ON ROUTES AFTER SYSTEM GETS NEW STATE AID
The Action Committee for Transit today denounced a plan to cut Ride-On bus service at a time when the Montgomery County bus system has just been awarded millions of dollars in new state aid. The cuts were proposed in a Dec. 21 budget-cutting plan sent from the County Executive to the County Council.
“With Montgomery County’s traffic so bad, the last thing we should be doing is putting more cars on the road by forcing people to drive who don’t want to,” commented ACT Vice President Ben Ross.
Just one month ago, Montgomery County members of the General Assembly won a pledge from Gov. Martin O’Malley to provide additional aid for Ride-On from Maryland’s Transportation Trust Fund. Local legislators who voted for tax increases wanted to be sure that some of the new revenues would go to relieve the travails of county commuters.
If the county cuts Ride-On service at the same time that Ride-On is getting more money from the state’s Trust Fund, the net effect will be to use Transportation Trust Fund revenues to cover the county’s general operating deficit. ACT pointed out that when the previous state administration used TTF money to cover an operating deficit, Montgomery Countians were highly critical.
The transit group warned that diverting money dedicated for Ride-On could make it harder for our legislative delegation to win funding of any kind in the future.