When it comes to money, cold, hard cash is what we like to see, not the earmarked variety that has recently found a new home with the Capital Area Transportation Authority.
Yet, while public transportation is an efficient mode of transportation and can always use funds, now might not be the right time for it to receive money because of the state's present financial troubles.
Presented on a forklift, CATA recently received a $1 million check that was earmarked in the 2003 federal transportation budget at the request of U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Brighton. The money will be used to finance CATA's maintenance expansion including the addition of two work bays to hold four new 60-foot buses, a larger area to wash the buses and three additional work bays for maintenance on smaller buses.
Although the money is good news for CATA, it's not straight-up cash. The process of earmarking money is not the best public policy because the money is not in hand. Public transportation is an important issue and does need to receive more money, however, because of the state's financial troubles and the lack of funding elsewhere due to extensive budget cuts, such money could be put to better use.
Instead of forking over an earmarked check to CATA, funding could be used to help lower the rising cost of tuition, increase the amount of financial aid given to students and create scholarships. Funding could also be used to improve many of the older dorms on campus.
More money needs to be given to the state in general instead of being put toward a "pork project," or an inefficient use of government money. In reality, Michigan gives more money to the federal government as it receives back.
It's time for the federal government to show Michigan some love by supporting the state with the financial help it so desperately needs at the moment, instead of through earmarked "pork projects."
