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- Subject: [SCVTARU] Draft letter to Boxer, Feinstein, and Pelosi re: stimulus bill
- From: "Eugene Bradley" <http://profiles.yahoo.com/eegenebradley>
- Date: Thu, 05 Feb 2009 19:57:52 -0000
All: This is the draft of a letter I want to send on our group's behalf to Senators Boxer and Feinstein, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, on the stimulus bill in the Senate and how it affects us locally. Please comment and suggest. I want to send the letter out by this time tomorrow, as the final vote in the Senate can occur at any time. --eugene ========== DRAFT LETTER ========== Dear Senator [Boxer|Feinstein] and House Speaker Pelosi: Our independent public transit advocacy and watchdog group has been monitoring with great interest the $819 billion economic stimulus bill in the Senate. Two things about the bill as is currently proposed deeply concern our group. The first portion of the bill that concerns us is lack of public transit capital and operations funding. We have learned that Senator Diane Feinstein tried to have an amendment to the bill that gives $25 billion in public transit funding which was defeated on Wednesday. All this comes just as the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) in where-I-live is considering reducing bus frequencies from southern Palo Alto to the local Veterans Administration from every 30 minutes to every hour this summer. Without transit operations funding, agencies like the VTA would have to have more service cuts, staff layoffs and more fare hikes. Any economic benefits of a stimulus bill would be negated by eliminating bus and rail options to work, school, and shopping for those who cannot drive a car due to health, age, or legal reasons. Perhaps some of the $300 million in the stimulus bill I personally found for supporting massage parlors can be used as starter money for transit operations funding. The other concern we have of the bill is lack of oversight for all of this funding. We have not heard of any means as to who will oversee over $800 billion of our money. How do we know that any public transit funding will not get redirected to highway construction funding, or worse, to a fellow Senator's pet project? Worse, how do we know that public transit funding or other funding in the stimulus bill will not be used to hire more bureaucrats at all levels of government? Without any independent oversight for over $800 billion of our money, it justifies concerns that this stimulus bill is the biggest "pork barrel project" bill in our nation's history. Please continue to do all that you can to have public transit capital and operations funding in the stimulus bill. Simultaneously, please ensure the stimulus bill includes provisions for independent auditing and oversight. Sincerely, Eugene Bradley Founder, Santa Clara VTA Riders Union ========== END DRAFT LETTER ==========
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