| As the op-ed in today's Courant accurately states, Jodi Rell's propsal to raise the tranist fares is "unfair, unimaginative and unwise." At a time when gas prices are once again rising and people are looking for alternative transportation, when global warming solutions are needed now more than ever, and when Connecticut should be embracing Smart Growth concepts, Queen Jodi decides it would be best to make it more expensive for people to take mass transportation. Her reasoning for the fare hike is that the state's transportation fund is on track to run a deficit by 2011, and with a soaring budget deficit and a depressed economy, the state must find a way to raise the money. Interestingly, studies have shown that for every $1 invested in public transportation, $6 is generated in economic returns and that every $10 million in capital investment in public transportationcan return up to $30 million in business sales alone. Such economic returns, not to mention the social and environmental benefits, would help the CT economy and the state budget. But, once again, we have a status quo governor wedded to an auto-centric way of thinking who sees no reason for the state to subsidize mass transportation.
The fact is that we already heavily subsidize the automobile in this country. A study by Mark Delucchi of the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Davis,indicates that in the US, current (ca. 2005) tax and fee payments to the government by motorvehicle users may fall short of present government expenditures related to motor-vehicle use by approximately 20-70 cents per gallon of all motor fuel. The question is what would you rather subsidize: more sprawling roadways for even more polluting, gas guzzling, traffic jam causing cars or a mass transportation system that gets our economy moving, help protect our environment, reduces our dependence on foreign oil, and enhances our quality of life? For some reason, someone in the governors mansion is having difficulty finding the answer to this question. |
