U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer has launched an effort to restore mass transit funding cuts recently passed by the House of Representatives. According to Schumer, a part of the transportation bill passed by the House was an amendment to completely defund a critical mass transit program called the 5340 Program or the High Density States program. This program provides New York and six other high-density states as well as the District of Columbia with millions in additional mass transit funding annually. Specifically, New York and New Jersey combined receive roughly $140 million each year.
“The 5340 program provides critical transportation funding to New York State each year and is vital to ensuring our transit agencies, both Upstate and Downstate, have the resources they need to operate and keep passengers safe,” said Schumer.
The Safe Accountable Flexible Efficient Transportation Equity Act was signed into law in 2005, establishing the Growing States and High Density States Formula Program (49 U.S.C. 5340), or “5340 funding,” created to apportion additional funds to the some of the most congested and transit-dependent Urbanized Areas (UZAs) in the country. The House of Representatives adopted into its six-year transportation bill an amendment that would eliminate the 5340 program and instead further increase funding for a competitive bus grant program. Schumer explained that, while increasing the funding for such discretionary programs is widely supported, doing so by stripping funding away from Northeast states, whose transit systems move millions of people and contribute significantly to the national economy, is the wrong approach.
The House bill is also funded at the existing baseline, meaning it provides only a slight increase for inflation. The Senate transportation bill, however, includes a 10 percent increase. Schumer said the House version’s tepid increase in overall appropriations, coupled with the fact that funding has been slashed from the High Density States program and diverted into a separate fund, will result in less real dollars for New York State next year should the House Bill become law. This would have a major impact on transit agencies in New York, like the MTA that services New York City, the Hudson Valley, and Long Island as well as smaller transit agencies throughout the state, which rely on the funding to help balance their already tight budgets. Eliminating this direct funding to agencies in Upstate means they will have less funds available for critical maintenance, system upgrades, and to ensure reliable and important service. This could also have an indirect impact on other forms of transportation, including highway and bridge funding. For example, Schumer said, if a smaller mass transit agency in Upstate runs into financial trouble because of this funding loss and needs to be made whole, New York might have to reduce the amount of money spent on other transportation programs to compensate.
Schumer is therefore pledging to work with the Senate and House conferees, who will negotiate the final bill, to immediately restore this funding for the 5340 High Density States program.
By Forum Staff
