KJP

For Immediate Release: Contact: Keith Dailey Wednesday, February 21, 2007 614 644-0957/614 506-4949 [email protected] Strickland Announces Transportation, Public Safety Budgets for Next Biennium Columbus, Ohio – Ohio Governor Ted Strickland today presented his budget for the Ohio Department of Transportation and the Ohio Department of Public Safety to the Ohio General Assembly. Strickland’s total recommended transportation budget for fiscal years 2008 and 2009 biennium are $3.9 and $3.8 billion respectively. “I believe this budget defines and funds our transportation and public safety priorities in a fiscally responsible way,” Strickland said. “This budget represents the challenges, opportunities, priorities and realities we currently face.” Ohio Department of Transportation Strickland’s budget for the Department of Transportation calls for a top-to-bottom reassessment of major new construction projects and criteria used to choose those projects, set by the Transportation Review Advisory Council, to ensure the department is on solid financial footing and that the state is a more reliable partner to local communities. The reassessment will include a review of how to maximize the Department of Transportation’s use of federal dollars. “Our transportation policy must renew and revitalize our cities and towns, connect our isolated economies to national markets, and maintain the pristine nature of Ohio’s rural areas,” Strickland said. “The investments we make in our roads, highways and state infrastructure should contribute to job creation.” During this review, efforts will be made to be as minimally disruptive as possible to the Department of Transportation’s new construction schedule for the next two years. The Department of Transportation makes up 80 percent of the total budget with total appropriations of about $3.2 billion in fiscal year 2008 and over $3.1 billion in fiscal year 2009. Ohio Department of Public Safety Most significantly in the Department of Public Safety, the Ohio State Highway Patrol is facing a $29 million shortfall in 2009 because the patrol will no longer be receiving a share of the gas tax. In order to keep the patrol from facing a $29 million deficit, Strickland will propose a change in the gasoline shrinkage and evaporation allowance. “Safety is a top priority of this administration, and our state troopers work with our counties and municipalities to keep Ohio as safe as possible,” Strickland said. “We must not weaken the troopers strong presence on our highways, and we must provide them with the resources they need to keep Ohioans safe.” The Ohio gasoline shrinkage and evaporation allowance, which exists to offset the costs to petroleum companies for evaporation at the pump, was to be raised to 3.0 percent in this biennium, but it will be lowered to 1.0 percent, which is the national median for the last fully compiled set of data from 2001. This change in the allowance will generate $38 million. Consumers should not pay the price for this change. The portion of the shrinkage and evaporation allowance transmitted to retailer will not change, so Ohioans should be protected at the pump from any added costs. The Department of Public Safety budget represents 18 percent of the total budget with appropriations of $685 million in fiscal year 2008 and $690 million in fiscal year 2009. For the complete transportation budget bill please visit: http://www.obm.ohio.gov/

Cool news. And their choice of location is interesting. I couldn't find any information about them on a Google search. B12, do you have contact info etc. for them?

My guess is that he wants to get a better read on what ODOT's total funding will be so he and Beasley can decide how much they can spend, and what they can spend it on.

I don't cover county government for Sun. That's the beat for another "Ken" :-)

Let's see... Human beings are 80 percent water, so let's put one million of them in a desert. Great idea. To me, Las Vegas has become typical ostentatious Americana, the victory of style over substance. In the end, it's just a big middle finger to the environment. As for purpose of this thread, I also don't understand how a cash-strapped county can justify paying money to demolish the Ameritrust Center. I have no opinion on its architecture. Perhaps it would be better to build on one of downtown's parking lots -- and certainly the Public Square lot is the most glaring.

I'd keep it separate. A building and redevelopment of this magnitude deserves to keep its own thread, IMHO. Maybe someday.

It may be. I don't know too much about it.

Why was Lhota even interviewed? He is on the fringe of this project. If I were you in Columbus, I would be royally steamed at the total disservice your media is doing to explain this project and to give the public the informational tools necessary to substantive decisions. It seems the media doesn't know where to turn to get information. Worse, they will keep going back to the same sources in the absence of alternatives that are made known to them. What brochures, media kits, web resources and other informative materials are available to them? If those things don't exist, the media will keep doing a disservice to Columbus.

Thanks for writing the Guv, mrnyc. I have a digital photo of the Rocky River station back in the day, and will look for it. I found out today that there is a design charette on Friday (early afternoon) for a TOD on West 117th. To my knowledge, the only TOD discussed for this area is one in the city's Connecting Cleveland plan, and is generally in the area between Detroit and Clifton. It is tied with the proposed West Shore Transit Corridor. Ironically, I cannot attend since I will be at the West Shore Corridor stakeholders meeting on Friday at NOACA. I don't have any other information on the design charette.

I found out today that there is a design charette on Friday for a TOD on West 117th. To my knowledge, the only TOD discussed for this area is one in the city's Connecting Cleveland plan, and is generally in the area between Detroit and Clifton. It is tied with the proposed West Shore Transit Corridor. Ironically, I cannot attend since I will be at the West Shore Corridor stakeholders meeting on Friday at NOACA. I don't have any other information on the design charette.

Damn. I can't make fun of this after I made the boo-boo in my article. Sad thing is, I have a site plan showing the location of the Gateway townhomes.

Great news, j73! As for this age thing, don't say you're old MTS. I'm right on your heels at age 39!

You're getting weird in your old age, David!

Unfortunately, the Coast Starlight regularly runs extremely late. I'm talking 5-10 hours. Check the Amtrak website www.amtrak.com at "Train Status" over several days to see if things have improved.

I can't begin to tell you how many times I've heard someone say: "Yeah, Chicago/New York/Boston/San Francisco etc. etc. have always had good transit, but we love our cars in Columbus. You can't FORCE people out of their cars." What too many Ohioans don't know is that rail transit has spread to the St. Louis', Denver's, Dallas', Salt Lake City's, etc. and has attracted ridership above what was expected while bus ridership remained no worse than stable. Tell the story of those cities which have gained rail transit in the last 20 years, including how their first lines sparked a transit revolution in each city. And don't forget to add what BuckeyeB said -- the anti-rail libertarian crowd will do whatever it takes to keep rail from getting a foot in the door in any city.

If you saw my article last week, it appears that Target and Home Depot will also opt out of theirs. If that's the case, the city will have the entire TIF to work with, as they originally hoped.

Subcombing? OK, I can take some misspellings on this site, but I can't let that one pass! It took me a few seconds to realize what you were trying to say. I presume you meant "succumbing"? :whip:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/chi-ap-il-trainriders,1,3974873.story?coll=chi-news-hed Officials: More passengers riding Metra, Amtrak in Illinois Associated Press Published February 18, 2007, 11:48 AM CST CHICAGO -- More Illinoisans are traveling to work and vacation by train, according to state and Metra officials. The announcements come as Metra and Amtrak lobby for more money from state and federal governments. Metra, which operates Chicago's commuter rail system, recorded 84.3 million passenger trips in 2006, the most in the company's history, and a 5.2 percent increase over 2005, officials said. Meanwhile, passengers increased by 69 percent on newly expanded Amtrak routes between Chicago and St. Louis, Carbondale and Quincy, state officials said. The Regional Transportation Authority, which oversees funding for Metra, the Chicago Transit Authority and Pace bus system, wants the Illinois General Assembly to fund $10 billion in capital investment over the next five years and an additional $400 million a year to operate the three agencies. "This surge in ridership highlights the need to continue to maintain and expand our commuter rail system," Metra Executive Director Phil Pagano said in a statement. Amtrak is trying to prevent $400 million in proposed funding cuts that are included in the Bush administration's fiscal year 2008 budget. "This increase in ridership tells me that the federal government is headed in the wrong direction when it tries to slash funding for Amtrak," Gov. Rod Blagojevich said in a statement Sunday. Expanded rail service, more stations, rising gasoline prices, and Chicago Bears games were key factors behind Metra's passenger surge, said Lynnette Ciavarella, director of planning and analysis. Still, lawmakers have other funding priorities like health care and education, and transportation might get lost in the shuffle, said Metra Chairwoman Carole Doris. "Transit is not at the top of the list," Doris said. For Amtrak, the Chicago-to-St. Louis line had the biggest increase in passengers. More than 64,200 passengers rode the line in November, December and January, a 95 percent increase over the same period a year earlier. Passengers increased by 68 percent on the Carbondale line and 38 percent on the Quincy line, officials said. Illinois' General Assembly doubled funding that the Illinois Department of Transportation gave to Amtrak in fiscal year 2007, to $24.2 million, to pay for the extended services that began Oct. 30. "These numbers demonstrate the demand for Amtrak in Illinois and tell us that we did the right thing when we doubled state support for passenger rail," Blagojevich said.

Cool pics. Blue Moon moved because it caught fire about three weeks ago. I don't know where it moved, either.

Cool. Thanks!

David is just being feisty today, based on his other messages. Or he imbibed a little too much of the adult beverage.

That's part of the plan.

I think you may be right.

I would even suggest acting as consultant/implementer of RTA's Transit Waiting Environments. How many shelters can/should UO adopt? ? ? ?

It's Wikipedia. Take their info with a salt lick.