The Federal Government is doing something really sleazy right now (Gee, what a surprise). They are telling States that 1.26 billion in Federal Transportation funds that have
already been handed out need to be returned. (The fancy legal term for this is "rescission" of funds.)
Call the governor in your state right now and tell him or her to make sure to keep the crucial and cheap Transportation Enhancements programs completely intact. The Transportation Enhancements program funds things like public transit, Amtrak, safe driving programs, bicycle and pedestrian faciltiies, and even things like Safe Routes to School programs.
So call your governor now, before 5pm local time.
More info below the fold, if you need it.
From an e-mail I recieved from my state's bicycle transportation organization,
MassBike:
On January 25th, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) issued a notice to all states requiring them to give back a portion of their previously promised transportation funds. Massachusetts is responsible for returning over $24 million in transportation funds, leaving the state's Transportation Enhancement Program - the largest federal investment in rail-trails, walking and bicycling in American communities - vulnerable to sweeping, disproportionate cuts. Governor Romney and MassHighway must decide by Thursday, February 24 where Massachusetts' portion of the funds returned will come from.
Your state's funding will vary. And your programs will vary. But the Transportation Enhancement Act (TEA) program is one of the very few sources of funding for sustainable forms of transportation. Last year a very conservative Ernest Istook (R-OK) tried unsucsessfully to destroy TEA by refusing to fund it. Congress saved it, but the guy is still out for blood, and this rescission is yet another way to gut the program.
Why should you care about a little program that looks like it just makes recreational paths? Well, because that's not all it does. And it's the only funding that goes to developing "alternatives" to inefficient, war-inducing, road-clogging, environmentally devastating, and expensive oil-based transportation.
Bush and Co. have a vested interest in seeing all this oil-free transportation program fail.
For even more info on sustainable transportation programs, and this particular call to action, see www.transact.org or www.railtrails.org
But call now. OK? Then read up on TEA at your leisure if you want.