Federal transit cuts could hit rural America hardest — SkimNews
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- The BUILD America 250 Act would authorize $103.3 billion over five years for public transit — $16.5 billion less than the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act baseline of $119.9 billion, and the Urban Institute says it would need an extra $24 billion just to match that level after inflation.
- Idaho would see the nation's largest percentage drop in federal formula transit funding at 18%, with Maine close behind at 16%, according to the Urban Institute.
- Rural transit systems are more reliant on federal support than urban agencies are, so the cuts would hit them hardest, researcher Yonah Freemark said — even as some agencies already operate as a "bare-minimum lifeline service."
- IndyGo in Indianapolis could be forced to delay bus purchases and rely on older, less reliable vehicles, and Hamilton County — Indiana's largest county without fixed-route transit — already has waitlists for its reservation-based service measured in weeks.
- New York City would lose $2.3 billion over five years; Rep. Jerry Nadler was the lone Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to vote against the bill, calling highways "the default national priority" at transit's expense.
- LeeAnn Hall of the National Campaign for Transit Justice noted that transportation is the second-highest cost in American household budgets, and warned that reduced service could push some families to add a second car rather than save money.
Why it matters: Rural transit agencies, which the article says are the most federally dependent, would absorb the deepest cuts even as many already operate as bare-minimum services serving seniors, people with disabilities, and tribal communities. With Idaho facing an 18% drop and every state losing at least $10 million in formula funding, the bill trades bipartisan passage for sustained underinvestment in the regions that least have other options.
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