Recently APTA circulated the funding request below to its membership. Please consider reaching out to your congressional delegation in support of APTA’s COVID-19 funding request. You can simply forward this email to your delegation and personalize some of the impacts you are seeing on the ground. There are numerous reports of increased costs and reduced fares across the country. We need to ensure Congress fully understands the impacts to Missouri’s systems.
Urge Your Members of Congress to Fight for
Public Transit COVID-19 Funding!
Congress is actively working on a third package of COVID-19 response legislation and an emergency aid package could pass in the coming days. Public transportation organizations are taking extraordinary efforts to protect the health and safety of riders and employees while working tirelessly to maintain essential services. We want to ensure that the federal government includes aid to public transportation agencies to help offset the additional costs and lost revenue related to COVID-19.
APTA requests $12.875 billion for public transit to offset direct costs and revenue losses of COVID-19 in Fiscal Year (FY) 2020. These funds are necessary to maintain essential services, including providing public transportation to health care workers, Medicaid recipients who receive non-emergency medical transportation, and law enforcement personnel. Without these emergency funds, public transit agencies may be required to suspend services.
The APTA request of $12.875 billion will offset the following costs and losses:
- Direct Costs: $1.75 billion. Based on preliminary results of the APTA survey, 98 percent of public transit agencies have increased direct costs because of COVID-19 (e.g., cleaning vehicles and facilities);
- Farebox Revenue Loss: $6.0 billion. We anticipate a 75 percent loss of farebox revenue over the remaining six months of FY 2020 (total annual revenue: $16.1 billion);
- Dedicated Sales Tax Revenue Loss: $4.875 billion. We anticipate a 75 percent loss of dedicated sales tax revenue over next six months (total annual revenue: $13 billion); and
- Restart Costs: $250 million.
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CALL TO ACTION We strongly encourage you to contact your Members of Congress today and share the impacts, such as ridership losses and increased costs due to labor and cleaning products, of COVID-19 on public transportation in your communities. |
Find your Congressional Representative Here
Missouri Senators:
Blunt, Roy – (R – MO)
260 Russell Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510
(202) 224-5721
Contact: www.blunt.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact-roy
Hawley, Josh – (R – MO)
212 Russell Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510
(202) 224-6154
Contact: www.hawley.senate.gov/contact-senator-hawley
Illinois Senators:
Duckworth, Tammy – (D – IL)
524 Hart Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510
(202) 224-2854
Contact: www.duckworth.senate.gov/content/contact-senator
Durbin, Richard J. – (D – IL)
711 Hart Senate Office Building Washington DC 20510
(202) 224-2152
Contact: www.durbin.senate.gov/contact/