The Case for State Investment in Public Transportation
Summary: Ohio has drastically cut public transit funding and is among the lowest nationwide – only 63 cents per person! This needs to change but will not happen over night.
#63cents
Due to loss of sales tax on Medicaid managed care organizations, GCRTA may have to cut service by 7-10%!
Clevelander’s for Public Transit demands a tax based solution from state legislators. This can be done by expanding the tax to non-Medicaid providers following the examples of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and California.
Press coverage:
- Ohio’s beleaguered public transit is on the edge of real financial crisis with sales tax changes
- Clevelanders for Public Transit, unions, say another round of cuts would make RTA unserviceable
- Why Ohio ignored its own $1M bus, rail study
References:
- ODOT: Statewide Transit Needs Study
- Policy Matters Ohio: Medicaid provider tax fix must not hurt counties, transit agencies
Background
Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) has significantly disinvested in urban public transit over the last 15 years leaving GCRTA without stable funding (shown as the grey line below).
Ohio has slashed spending on Urban Public Transportation by over 90% since 2000!
Source: Ohio Statewide Transit Needs Study
In fact, Ohio has disinvested so much recently that South Dakota spends more than Ohio on public transit! ODOT spends only $0.63 per person on transit while nearby states such as Michigan, Illinois, and Pennsylvania spend over $50 per person!
Ohio only spends 63 cents per person on transit while nearby states spend over $50. This is a large reason why RTA is not able to provide adequate service.
Source: Ohio Statewide Transit Needs Study
ODOT has gone as far as completing its own Ohio Statewide Transit Needs Study calling for 10% of the state transit needs funded by ODOT. To put that in perspective, that would require a total investment of $184.2 million, or an increase of 674%. The last state budget for 2016-2017 did not increase transit funding at all!
Ohio’s goal is to cover 10% of the cost of public transit.
Source: Ohio Statewide Transit Needs Study
What Can we do if Ohio won’t fund transit?
In a perfect world the state of Ohio would do the right thing and adequately fund transit Sadly, we know all too well that this is not the case and GCRTA must act to balance the budget now.
Clevelanders for Public Transit is committed to making the trip to Columbus whenever we can to demand adequate public transportation funding.
We will also be an active part of any statewide coalition to demand adequate funding.
Have a story to tell to state law makers in Columbus about your experience on public transit? Let us know.