Posts tagged Budget
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Want to fight Metro cuts? Build a coalition
Yesterday, a new coalition of transit riders, environmental, and labor groups calling themselves “Transit First” organized to oppose cuts in WMATA funding and service. The groups that make up Transit First work on the broad and interrelated issues of mass transit, Smart Growth, the environment, and labor. The coalition includes the Action Committee… Keep reading…
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Breakfast links: hardball negotiations
PG United? DC United’s owner has announced his intention to move the team to Prince George’s County, though he has no firm deal yet. Owner Victor McFarlane wanted DC to pay 75% of the cost of the new stadium, the Post writes, potentially costing DC up to $225 million in public money. McFarlane also offered to “let” DC use some of the tax revenue from ticket and… Keep reading…
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High-speed rail, here we come
The House-Senate conference committee kept the Senate bill’s lower $8.4 billion transit funding level instead of the House’s $12 billion and cut the somewhat mysterious $5.5 billion transportation grants, but they also gave national high-speed rail an enormous boost to $9.3 billion. Keep reading…
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Breakfast links: avarice and indifference
Want potholes fixed? Pay taxes! After the Post published a letter from an Arlington car commuter complaining about potholes, commenters quickly suggested he also complain that Virginia keeps all his tax money even though he earns it in, and uses roads in, the District. Mike Licht collected the best ones. Tip: Bianchi. Keep reading…
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Blumenauer strikes back
Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) of Portland is the House’s leading bicycle advocate and one of the most progressive thinkers on designing our transportation systems for pedestrians, bicycles, buses and streetcars as well as private automobiles. Keep reading…
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Stimulus compromise won’t cut transit
Our calls and lobbying made an impact. The “moderate” Senators crafting a stimulus compromise decided to leave transportation funding as is in the stimulus. Things can always change, but at the moment, it looks like there won’t be cuts to the transit funding, Boxer/Inhofe won’t add $50 billion more for highways, and Bond won’t cut high-speed rail. Keep reading…
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Weekend reading: someone is wrong on the Internet
More obnoxiously judgmental? Prince of Petworth discusses the curb cut-gorging townhouses on P Street between 16th and 17th, leading to a debate about curb cuts followed by “which blog commenters are more obnoxiously judgmental,” on PoP or Greater Greater Washington. Keep reading…
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Senate “cutters” adding spending they like, removing programs they don’t
Senators Ben Nelson (D-NE) and Susan Collins (R-ME) are leading a small group of centrist Senators which, reportedly, is trying to cut the stimulus by about $100 billion. Supposedly, they feel the stimulus is too large. But according to a memo obtained by The Plum Line, they’re also adding in some items as well. Keep reading…
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Sustainable Transportation Five, please step forward
Five unnamed but heroic Democratic Senators refused to support Boxer and Inhofe’s amendment to add $50 billion in highway spending to the stimulus. According to Streetsblog, they insisted on these criteria: Keep reading…
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What should Metro cut?
A group of staff from the WMATA member jurisdictions, called the Joint Coordinating Committee (JCC), has been developing a list of possible service cuts to close Metro’s huge budget gap. They will present this list to the Board next Thursday. Keep reading…