Thanks for coming out! We need you to get involved.

Posted on by clefortransit@gmail.com

Thanks to all who came out to our event with TransitCenter last week. We packed the Market Garden Brewery with 100+ people!

We heard from Jon Orcutt, director of Advocacy for TransitCenter on ways other cities have improved public transportation.

We also heard from local officials. Dale Miller, County Council member and head of the County’s transit committee talked about the challenges of state funding. City Council members Kerry McCormack and Brian Cummins started the conversation on how to improve transit locally.

Local leaders are starting to take action on transit because you are pushing them.

We need you to continue to be involved…

Monthly meetings begin May 6th. Join us!

Clevelanders for Public Transit will be holding regular monthly meetings and encourages riders to get involved.

Our first meeting will be Saturday, May 6th from 12-1:30pm at Organize Ohio Basement Meeting Room, 3500 Lorain Ave. Enter at the Office Entrance door on Lorain Ave.

We will be training new members on how to talk to other riders and grow our membership. We will also discuss long-term goals of the group and a brief history for newcomers.

More info and Facebook event here.

After the meeting, stay for the Cuyahoga Progressive Caucus monthly meeting, starting at 2pm. More information available here.

TIME SENSITIVE: Demand funding for buses, not billionaires!

Next Monday, Cleveland City Council plans to pass legislation preventing money that would go in the city’s general fund to instead go towards renovations on the Quicken Loans Arena.

At the same time, GCRTA services have been cut, single fares are going up to $2.75 next year, and pending changes in state policy (see below), GCRTA is facing massive budget shortfalls.
The state has not been friendly to public transit, we need local investment.

We want money for buses not billionaires. Sign up to volunteer for Clevelanders for Public Transit on this issue.

Thanks to all who took action to on the state budget!

Thanks to our 100+ letters the Ohio Senate had initially increased public transit funding by $30 million! Unfortunately the State House did not agree and cut the increase to $10 million in the final version of the bill.

This small increase will not be enough to cover the loss of the Medicaid sales tax. Public transit will be losing $34 million statewide in Medicaid sales tax revenue in 2019. GCRTA stands to lose the most, about $19 million/year! This could mean a 10% service cut in 2019. We can’t let that happen.

The state has until the end of June to fix the gap left by the loss of the medicaid tax, we will keep you posted.

In the meantime, State Senator Matt Dolan, should be contacted to find a solution. Senator Dolan represents the outer ring suburbs of Cuyahoga County. If you live in Dolan’s district contact him at (614) 466-8056. Tell him to find a tax based solution to the Medicaid tax that won’t throw public transit under the bus.