After years of research, organizing, outreach, and advocacy, I am pleased to announce the we have won a huge victory on RTA:
A new Regional Transit Authority is coming to southeast Michigan!!
On Thursday the Michigan House passed the three most critical bills to create and provide new funding options for the RTA.
It was a near thing, getting caught up with unrelated ugly debates over so-called “Right to Work” policies and most Democrats voting against everything the Governor was pushing, including RTA. But the Republicans were able to rally enough votes to pass the first three bills; the last two are expected to pass next week. The Governor is strongly committed to signing them. For more details, read my summary of how it happened on Facebook.
A huge thank you thank you thank you to everyonewho called, emailed, tweeted, came to Lansing, and otherwise pushed to make this happen!! This was truly an incredible group effort from hundreds of amazing people. Thank you!!!
So what’s next?
The new RTA will go into effect in late March 2013 (90 days from signing). At that time, the County and City Executives will appoint Board members who will be responsible for hiring a CEO, updating the Regional Transit Plan, and more. The new RTA takes oversight financially on October 1, 2013. We advocates will have a lot to do to make sure the Board members are truly dedicated to bold, regionally-focused transit solutions and set up a strong Citizen’s Advisory Council that they really listen to.
Stay tuned, and CONGRATULATIONS!