Pittsburgh PA - Bill Millar, president of the transit industry lobby group known as the American Public Transit Association (APTA) came back to Pittsburgh recently. He had some pearls of wisdom for the area concerning the Pennsylvania transit funding crisis. As the Port Authority of Allegheny County's (PAT) former Executive Director for 13 years, he does have a unique view of the problems facing PAT. Some of his thoughts I agree with, others he's way off base on.
Millar's stance is pretty much "mo' money, mo' money and even mo' money" is needed. Not once in the interview with Pittsburgh Post Gazette transportation writer, Joe "Softball" Grata did he say that public transit needs to run efficiently and watch its expenditures. Given APTA's leanings toward wanting to saddle cash strapped transit systems with expensive transit projects, this doesn't surprise me at all.
One must remember, many of the problems PAT faces today in terms of wasteful spending were set up during Millar's tenure as Executive Director. A later Executive Director at PAT took the wasteful spending practices to a whole new level and made Millar look like a penny pincher.
In a typical comment to try and pin the funding crisis on Republicans, Millar took a swipe at former Pennsylvania State Governor Tom Ridge (R) for not constantly giving transit systems more money on demand when Ridge was Governor between 1995 and 2001. He made the claim that the Ridge administration refused to come to the rescue of PAT and other Pennsylvania transit systems during those years and that is a false statement. As was the case when a Democrat was in the Governor's office, additional state aid did come after the decades old annual ritual of threatening the public with fare hikes and route cuts.
Millar is correct in that the State Legislature and Governors over the years have not placed a priority on a proper funding mechanism for public transit in Pennsylvania. It's just not the Republicans that didn't act however, the Democrats also stalled on this. The transit funding crisis has been effecting public transit in Pennsylvania since the early 1970's and was nothing new when Millar first sat in the PAT Executive Director chair in 1984.
Millar then went on about the "success stories" in several cities. I almost fell off the chair laughing. Many systems he mentioned are having major problems and a few examples are below:
Then he went on about Smart Growth. For those unfamiliar, Smart Growth is designed to incorporate public transit into development plans. It sounds good but it's loaded with expensive problems which is why Liberal Democrats love it, it wastes tax money. In reality, Smart Growth policies cost taxpayers billions of dollars each year through things like sweetheart deals that use public money to benefit private developers. It's basically the modern day version of the expensive 1960's Urban Renewal fiasco that destroyed more areas than it ultimately helped.
"I'm shocked to see that Allegheny County is not putting any more money into the Port Authority today than it did 10 years ago. Local folks are major beneficiaries of the service, so it's not unreasonable for the county to support it" states Millar.
There is no mention of the fact that Allegheny County government is controlled by transit loving Democrats and the current transit loving Democrat in charge, Dan Onorato, is trying to get out of financially supporting PAT completely. Mr. Millar and "Softball" Grata are fully aware of this yet no mention of it. I must question why there was no mention of this little tidbit of important information.
"The issues were very much the same then (1984) as they are today," Millar recalled. The issues were very much the same in 1973 as well, Bill. The problem isn't Republicans as you and Joe attempt to make it out to be. The problem is with the politicians in general, regardless of party. No politician really wants to deal with the problem as it will take money away from their pet projects. Sure the Dems talk a good talk about wanting to support public transit in Pennsylvania but when push comes to shove and that support threatens their pet project money, they scatter like cockroaches when the lights come on.
I will give Bill Millar credit for this though, he did ride the bus when he was Executive Director of PAT. That act alone brought about a big change in the PAT 17B route which always had the oldest and most dilapidated buses assigned to it until he was placed in charge. Suddenly the 17B received the new buses that were actually clean since he rode the route. The old and dilapidated buses were then scattered around the other routes.
APTA needs to concentrate more on getting transit systems to run more efficiently. Instead, under Millar, APTA is pushing for more wasteful spending through unneeded transit projects and Smart Growth projects. In all the years Millar has been in charge I have yet to hear APTA mention that in order for public transit to succeed, it must run efficiently and focus on the basics. I did hear those words out of APTA prior to Millar but once he became head of the group, the whole focus became on helping transit systems find new ways to waste money.
Millar's stance is pretty much "mo' money, mo' money and even mo' money" is needed. Not once in the interview with Pittsburgh Post Gazette transportation writer, Joe "Softball" Grata did he say that public transit needs to run efficiently and watch its expenditures. Given APTA's leanings toward wanting to saddle cash strapped transit systems with expensive transit projects, this doesn't surprise me at all.
One must remember, many of the problems PAT faces today in terms of wasteful spending were set up during Millar's tenure as Executive Director. A later Executive Director at PAT took the wasteful spending practices to a whole new level and made Millar look like a penny pincher.
In a typical comment to try and pin the funding crisis on Republicans, Millar took a swipe at former Pennsylvania State Governor Tom Ridge (R) for not constantly giving transit systems more money on demand when Ridge was Governor between 1995 and 2001. He made the claim that the Ridge administration refused to come to the rescue of PAT and other Pennsylvania transit systems during those years and that is a false statement. As was the case when a Democrat was in the Governor's office, additional state aid did come after the decades old annual ritual of threatening the public with fare hikes and route cuts.
Millar is correct in that the State Legislature and Governors over the years have not placed a priority on a proper funding mechanism for public transit in Pennsylvania. It's just not the Republicans that didn't act however, the Democrats also stalled on this. The transit funding crisis has been effecting public transit in Pennsylvania since the early 1970's and was nothing new when Millar first sat in the PAT Executive Director chair in 1984.
Millar then went on about the "success stories" in several cities. I almost fell off the chair laughing. Many systems he mentioned are having major problems and a few examples are below:
- Denver has built itself into a fiscal black hole through transit projects it can't afford.
- Salt Lake City is facing major route cuts and fare hikes as well as attempts to dissolve the transit system.
- Atlanta is having major funding issues while looking for new ways to spend money.
Then he went on about Smart Growth. For those unfamiliar, Smart Growth is designed to incorporate public transit into development plans. It sounds good but it's loaded with expensive problems which is why Liberal Democrats love it, it wastes tax money. In reality, Smart Growth policies cost taxpayers billions of dollars each year through things like sweetheart deals that use public money to benefit private developers. It's basically the modern day version of the expensive 1960's Urban Renewal fiasco that destroyed more areas than it ultimately helped.
"I'm shocked to see that Allegheny County is not putting any more money into the Port Authority today than it did 10 years ago. Local folks are major beneficiaries of the service, so it's not unreasonable for the county to support it" states Millar.
There is no mention of the fact that Allegheny County government is controlled by transit loving Democrats and the current transit loving Democrat in charge, Dan Onorato, is trying to get out of financially supporting PAT completely. Mr. Millar and "Softball" Grata are fully aware of this yet no mention of it. I must question why there was no mention of this little tidbit of important information.
"The issues were very much the same then (1984) as they are today," Millar recalled. The issues were very much the same in 1973 as well, Bill. The problem isn't Republicans as you and Joe attempt to make it out to be. The problem is with the politicians in general, regardless of party. No politician really wants to deal with the problem as it will take money away from their pet projects. Sure the Dems talk a good talk about wanting to support public transit in Pennsylvania but when push comes to shove and that support threatens their pet project money, they scatter like cockroaches when the lights come on.
I will give Bill Millar credit for this though, he did ride the bus when he was Executive Director of PAT. That act alone brought about a big change in the PAT 17B route which always had the oldest and most dilapidated buses assigned to it until he was placed in charge. Suddenly the 17B received the new buses that were actually clean since he rode the route. The old and dilapidated buses were then scattered around the other routes.
APTA needs to concentrate more on getting transit systems to run more efficiently. Instead, under Millar, APTA is pushing for more wasteful spending through unneeded transit projects and Smart Growth projects. In all the years Millar has been in charge I have yet to hear APTA mention that in order for public transit to succeed, it must run efficiently and focus on the basics. I did hear those words out of APTA prior to Millar but once he became head of the group, the whole focus became on helping transit systems find new ways to waste money.
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