Action Alert: A final transportation bill will be negotiated very soon!

You can take action on this alert by reading the information below and following the directions at the bottom.

Preventing the fare increases and cuts to transit service.

Governor Pawlenty has vetoed the transportation bill and put transit at risk. Service will be drastically reduced and fares will go up if the Governor and state legislature do not allocate $66 million dollars in stop-gap funding by the end of the special session.

Transit voices have clearly made a difference this session. There is now a significant, bi-partisan block of legislators that has made transit a priority and believes that it needs an increasing and secure funding source.

Just before the regular session ended, the Governor vetoed a transportation bill that would have prevented the service cuts and fare increases AND would have given transit significant new, stable revenue. Since the special session began there has been very little discussion of transit/transportation. The leadership is currently negotiating the education and health care bills and deciding how to raise revenue.

An agreement on those bills may be reached soon and a final transportation bill will then be crafted very quickly. We must use this time to pressure leadership to adopt a compromise package that provides full stop-gap funding for transit in 2006-07. If a compromise is not reached by June 30th state government will shut down and it will be difficult to avoid the service reductions and fare increases.

Only the state legislature and Governor can avert the proposed reductions to bus service. Take action to ask them to ensure that stop-gap funding for transit is a part of the final budget deal.

Please call Governor Pawlenty at 651-296-3391, Minority Leader Matt Entenza at 651-296-8799 and Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson at 651-296-3826 and use the message below as a guide. You can also edit the message below and send them a fax or email.

Your message will be sent to each of the following targets:

Representative Steve Drazkowski
Governor
Your State Representative
Your State Senator

A sample message appears below, which you may edit before sending.

This Action Alert Campaign is Closed.