[PRCo] Transit___Funding

[James B. Holland]

  What follows has implications for the Whole Nation  --  Is this a
  Rolling SnowBall???????



  Pelosi willing to give up S.F. funds for recovery

Edward Epstein, Chronicle Washington Bureau 
<mailto:eepstein at sfchronicle.com>

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

 

Washington -- House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco 
said Tuesday she was willing to return to the federal Treasury $70 
million designated for San Francisco projects in the new highway and 
transportation bill and use the money to help pay for Hurricane Katrina 
recovery efforts.

Her counterpart, House Majority Leader Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said 
that while he would consider cutting all other domestic discretionary 
spending to raise the tens of billions of dollars needed for Katrina 
relief, it was a bad idea to take money from transportation projects.

His suburban Houston district is slated to get $64.4 million under the 
bill, and DeLay has said that he brought home an additional $50 million 
for freeway projects in the metropolitan area. He also helped secure 
$324 million in funding credits for Houston's light rail construction.

Pelosi, a longtime Appropriations Committee member who gave up that post 
when she became Democratic leader in late 2002, said she had always 
opposed the practice of lawmakers' writing legislation that specifies 
federal money for their special district projects.

"I would give them up to help Katrina victims," she said. "The people of 
San Francisco would be very proud of that.''

Pelosi also endorsed Tuesday a proposal by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los 
Angeles, to create an independent commission to investigate possible 
fraud and waste in the billions that will be spent on Katrina recovery 
projects.

While Pelosi opposes the increasing use of targeted spending for 
district projects, which often sidestep the normal application or 
hearing process, she has made sure San Francisco received its share of 
the money. Over the years, that has meant she has helped secure millions 
of dollars for Municipal Railway projects, street improvements, HIV-AIDS 
treatment and other programs.

The federal cost for Katrina recovery has been estimated at $200 
billion. To help pay the cost, some have targeted the $286.4 billion 
transportation bill, passed in July, which contains about $24 billion in 
"earmarks'' for individual members' projects -- assailed as pork barrel 
spending at its worst.

Most of the bill's money is distributed to states according to funding 
formulas for highways, bridges and mass transit.

DeLay told reporters "I'll take a look'' at returning the members' 
individual transportation projects to pay for Katrina. But he sounded 
deeply unenthusiastic.

"My earmarks are pretty important to that region,'' the Republican 
leader said. "The bill creates hundreds of thousands of jobs. It's an 
economic engine.''

When Congress passed the long-delayed transportation bill, which was 
held up for two years as Congress and Bush wrangled over its size, 
Pelosi announced $129 million in special projects for her district, 
which covers about three-quarters of San Francisco.

She offered to return $70 million of the $129 million to help pay for 
hurricane relief -- all except $59 million set aside for the Golden Gate 
Bridge earthquake retrofit project, which she termed vital for national 
security and public safety.

Among the other projects are $29 million for the planned new Transbay 
Terminal in San Francisco and plans to extend Caltrain from Fourth and 
Townsend streets to the new terminal.

While the debate rages over the transportation earmarks, one of 
Washington's leading critics of pork barrel spending said he doesn't 
think Congress will reopen the highway legislation to move money to 
Katrina relief.

"Pigs will fly before we cut this pork,'' said Keith Ashdown of 
Taxpayers for Common Sense. "I don't know how we'll make this happen.''

------------------------------------------------------------------------
San Francisco projects

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco said she would 
pass up $70 million in federal money going for transportation projects 
in the Bay Area and use the tax dollars to help pay for Gulf Coast 
hurricane relief. Among the projects now scheduled to receive federal 
money are:

-- San Francisco Transbay Terminal, Caltrain extension -- $29 million.

-- Doyle Drive replacement -- $8 million

-- Muni's Islais Creek bus yard -- $5 million

-- Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, improvements -- $5.6 million

-- Trails and bikeways at the Presidio and Golden Gate National 
Recreation Area -- $5 million

-- Illinois Street bridge, port of San Francisco -- $3.2 million

-- Muni's program of providing real-time arrival information for trains 
and buses -- $2.5 million

-- City CarShare, a nonprofit that provides cars on an as-needed basis 
-- $1.6 million

Source: Rep. Nancy Pelosi's office

E-mail Edward Epstein at eepstein at sfchronicle.com 
<mailto:eepstein at sfchronicle.com>.

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Jim__Holland


I__Like__Ike.......And__PCCs!!

down with pantographs ---- UP___WITH___TROLLEYPOLES!!!!!!!