Are Americans Ready to Appropriate More Tax to Public Transportation?

My favorite thing about CNN.com is the polls on the right side of the home page. I’ve referenced them several times on this blog.

A poll this weekend definitely signaled a sign-of-the-times sea change in public opinion of your average CNN.com visitor. Clearly influenced by the seemingly endless rise in prices at the pump, two-thirds of the 130,000 or so who answered the survey selected yes when asked if they’d support using more tax money to improve the public transit system. Note: it did say using more tax, not paying more tax, however, I believe that most people see the phrase “more tax” and think “outta my pockets.”

Here’s to hoping that this is a glimpse of a real sea change revealing a clear path for government to finally improve, build, and subsidize public transportation systems that could be critical to such vital assets as: our infrastructure; our expenses; our environment; our oil dependency; our local economies…

If the federal bias continues to be pro-war anti-infrastructure, there are several ways this can be dealt with on the state and local level.

In California, amendments were passed to ensure that taxes intended for public transportation project were not diverted in 2002 (Prop 42), 2006 (Prop 1A) and a shady variant of 1A failed in 2008 (Prop 91).