Mothers and fathers talked about how they would not be able to get to their jobs any more if the routes were cut. (Did you know that 71% of all riders rely upon public transit as their only means of transportation?) They made it clear that even with the current transit system, they often had to get up an extra three hours early just to make it to work on time. Stories of buses not showing up, being left stranded for hours, and having to make long transfer walks clearly demonstrated that an increase in service was called for, not cuts.
Particularly impressive was the turnout among the ability impaired community of riders. Their courageous and inspiring testimonies were a call to the conscious and the heart of all in the audience - especially the board members. They made it clear that public transportation was the key to their independence, and absolutely essential to their lives.
CEJ member Elise Blasingame, a student at UB, provided testimony on behalf of our organization and members. Thank you to Elise, and everyone who spoke out last night! We would strongly encourage all those who have not gone to one the these public hearings to attend one! Even if you know nothing about the proposed cuts or have never used a bus in your life - trust us, you'll be glad you went!
Here is the transcript of Elise Blasingame's public comment:
"My name is Elise Blasingame, and I am a student at UB, and a proud member of The Coalition for Economic Justice. CEJ is a coalition of labor, faith-based, and community organizations that collectively fight for workers’ rights, equitable and accountable economic development, and quality jobs in order to strengthen working families and promote a thriving, just economy that allows for equal opportunity for all.
We believe that public money should be used to better the public good, and that far too often, we squander our public resources and do not effectively promote what is in the best interest of our communities. For example, when the Erie County Industrial Development Agency provides huge tax breaks to a warehouse in Tonawanda, which then shuts down and lays off 41 workers – as actually happened a week ago – our public resources are effectively wasted on a project that did not create a lasting positive impact on our community. Then, having lost substantial revenue, residents of Erie County find ourselves faced with cuts to public services like quality education, access to reliable health care – and in this case –public transportation that residents of Erie County need and rely upon.
The Coalition for Economic Justice, and the hundreds of organizations and individuals who are members of CEJ – including myself – feel that not only is this unfair – this is un-just.
To give you a scope of the problem, last year alone over $8 billion dollars in cash subsidies and tax breaks were handed out by the various economic development agencies in New York State. Our organization and our partners monitored where this money was spent, and found that more often than not, tax subsidies were going to corporations that failed to live up to their promises on job creation – and many times actually cut jobs. In other words – we continuously subsidize profits for the 1% at the expense of working families and the services communities need.
The lesson learned? The money is there.
This means that we do in fact have the revenue and resources to support and even expand public transit, and that not to do so reflects a choice and makes clear a set of priorities – priorities which do not include building an equitable and efficient transportation system and working towards a more sustainable community.
An additional layer to the problem with our broken system of economic development bears heavily on our current situation. Our Industrial Development Agencies continue to subsidize projects which promote sprawl, rather than invest in our urban core. These projects often include retail or corporate office parks that do not create new economic activity, instead they shift the location of economic activity out of the city and into the suburbs. This means that more and more jobs are moving out to the suburbs. As need increases for economically viable public transportation options to create access to these jobs, you would think that public transportation services would exist to meet that need. Instead, the proposed cuts to public transportation would create barriers in access to these jobs by those who need them most – low-income residents, who are increasingly concentrated within the urban areas of Buffalo.
Bruce Fisher, economics professor at Buff State College wrote an article in last week’s Artvoice magazine and summed this problem up well, stating: 'Clearly, state agencies that spend taxpayer money are not communicating with each other, on transportation or economic development. Even state agencies that are in the same business are not communicating with one another. And there is nobody telling them to do so except the NFTA bus riders who fear that they soon will be unable to get to their jobs.'
Myself, the Coalition for Economic Justice, and the hundreds of labor, faith, and community organizations that form our coalition are demanding that the agencies responsible for spending our money coordinate much more effectively, consolidating where possible, and that we rein in our wasteful system of corporate subsidies. We cannot continue to fund these repeated failures on the backs of those who cannot afford to give any more.
Residents of Erie County are struggling. If these cuts take place or if efforts to offset the cuts involve further rate hikes – we will not forget where the priorities of our policy makers lay – and who they are not concerned with."
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