Anger over the governor's raid on transit funds in his revised budget has some transit officials mulling a lawsuit or even a ballot initiative to protect those funds. The governor wants to pull $1.3 billion from money dedicated to transit uses to use for other purposes. That's got some people steaming mad.
Assembly Speaker Fabián Núñez said, "There's a bait and switch on transit funding here, too. You can't pose for the cover of Newsweek as the savior of global warming one day and then turn around and slash funding for public transit the next. You can't have a press conference urging commuters to take public transit after a highway collapses one day and then turn around and slash funding for public transit the next."
Part of the ire stems from the governor's sleight-of-hand with school buses. He wants to take $300 million from the public transit funds and spend it on school buses. His budget wizards define that as "public transit," though transporting school kids has always been regarded as a job for the schools and not transit agencies.
This is not the first time the governator has pulled something like this. He's fond of talking the talk, but often won't walk the walk. He likes to look green on the high-profile issues, as in his disapproval of the BHP LNG project today, but he wusses out when it gets tougher or isn't on the front page.