Media Advisory: Will MTC Commit to Equalize Transit Spending?

January 8, 2007

MTC Director Flip-Flops on Prior Support for Correcting Transportation Funding Inequities, Despite Recent Findings that Low-Income Bus Riders Get Short End of Stick

What: Press Conference with Bay Area grassroots organizations and members of the Minority Citizens Advisory Committee (MCAC)

When: Friday, January 12, 2007, 9:30AM

Where: MTC Headquarters -- Joseph P. Bort MetroCenter, 101 Eighth Street, Oakland, California
 
Leaders from Bay Area grassroots organizations and the Minority Citizens Advisory Committee (MCAC) to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) will address the media regarding MCAC’s Environmental Justice (EJ) Principles (see below for full text), which MTC has so far refused to adopt and implement.  Immediately following the press conference, the MTC Legislation Committee will meet to vote on whether to adopt the full set of four EJ Principles.  The MTC is responsible for distributing over $1 billion a year in transportation funds across the Bay Area.

A vote to adopt the EJ Principles, would commit MTC to ensuring that the needs of low-income and minority communities are identified and addressed, and that the benefits and burdens of transportation investments are fairly distributed.  MTC’s own data recently found a significant discrepancy between funding provided to bus riders of MUNI, AC Transit and the Santa Clara VTA, who tend to be people of color and with low incomes, compared to rail riders of BART, CalTrain and other systems, who are predominantly white and affluent, and who own cars in far greater numbers.

MTC’s Executive Director, Steve Heminger, assisted with the final language of the Principles and was previously on record in support of them.  However, despite recent findings that substantiate that inequities exist among transit operators, Heminger now says that the Principles are “too contentious” to be adopted.  This about-face calls into question the depth of MTC’s committment to achieving equity.

A follow-up press release with more background information and quotes will be sent Thursday morning, January 11th.   Also, for more information about the MCAC, see MTC’s website: http://mtc.ca.gov/get_involved/advisory/index.htm  

 
Language of proposed Environmental Justice Principles:

To ensure that Environmental Justice is effectively incorporated into all of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s planning, decision-making, funding and operations, the Minority Citizens Advisory Committee urges the Metropolitan Transportation Commission to adopt and implement the following principles.

Principle #1 – Create an open and transparent public participation process that empowers low-income communities and communities of color to participate in decision making that affects them.

Principle #2 – Collect accurate and current data essential to defining and understanding the presence and extent of inequities, if any, in transportation funding based on race and income.

Principle #3 – MTC should change its discretionary investment decisions and actions to mitigate identified inequities.
 
Principle #4 – Ensure that adverse or potentially adverse disproportionate project impacts on low-income and/or minority communities are addressed and mitigated by project sponsors prior to MTC project or funding approval.