Transbay Riders Help Win Budget Battle

News Articles
08/03/2006

Transbay riders got together last month at lunchtime to launch a letter writing campaign. Their goal was to get California state legislators to protect transit funding in their budget proposal for the coming year. Rather than take the easy way of calling or e-mailing, these folks sat down and created handwritten messages. Knowing that a  handwritten letter and is worth 20-30 e-mails in the eyes of most politicians, they were willing to put in the extra effort.

In previous years the Governor had raided the public transportation account to the tune of $1.4 billion in order to resolve deficits in the general fund. But not this time.  After intense lobbying from Transbay riders and local transit officials, the Legislature stopped the Governor from robbing transit funding.  Instead, the Governor signed a new budget that included an additional $137 million for Bay Area transit.  And after six years of raiding transit funds,  the governor approved the return of $4.2 billion in transit funding taken in previous years.

These days it’s easy for groups to flood a politician’s office with phone calls or e-mails.  But the power of a handwritten letter will trump the telephone and Internet every time.