N.J. transportation bill could save key programs for seniors, disabled
Local advocates for the disabled and elderly are urging state officials to pass a bill that would increase funding for statewide transportation programs facing budget cuts in January.Dottie Cullen, a Vineland resident who sits on the county’s Transportation Advisory Council, said Sunday that an imminent $60,000 cut to the county’s Cumberland Area Transit System, or CATS, will affect hundreds of local senior citizens and disabled people who use that service every day.
“It’s just unbelievable,” Cullen said. “We have people with disabilities who are productive citizens. Our drivers get up at five in the morning, pick them up, take them to work, to dialysis, doctors, counselors, everything. Sure, I know the economy is bad. We all know it. But in this country, we shouldn’t have to beg.”
The program is funded entirely through the Casino Revenue Fund, which allocates 7.5 percent of its annual revenue to fund transportation programs across the state. Since decreased casino revenue has translated into decreased funding, a bill working its way through the Legislature, A-2046 and S-1830, would increase the funding percentage by one point, to 8.5 percent.
Misono Miller, executive director of the Cumberland County Office of Aging and Disabled, said Sunday that the small boost would be enough to hold off a transportation catastrophe.
“That increase would probably reinstate most of the reductions in all the counties,” Miller said. “It would prevent a major crisis that transportation systems are facing in New Jersey.”The $60,000 loss, Miller said, makes up about 11 percent of the CATS 2008 budget. It will translate, however, into two eliminated positions, one of which would have to be a driver.
Theresa Van Sant, project director for the CATS service, said the system makes 500 to 700 trips per day, averaging about 130,000 per year. The loss of those two positions, Van Sant added, would be keenly felt by the system’s users.
Both Miller and Van Sant added that rising gas prices have also become a source of concern for CATS.
“I think the gas costs have doubled in the past two years, and there’s a serious situation in how to maintain systems operations without any disruption,” Miller said.
According to Cullen, the bills being considered by the Legislature have been floating around in Trenton for a number of years, ever since transportation officials suspected that the 7.5 percent Casino Revenue Fund allocation would eventually become insufficient.
In the state Senate, the bill has moved somewhat briskly, and was referred June 9 to the Budget and Appropriations Committee. In the Assembly however, it has lagged in a tourism and gaming committee, where it was sent in June after being introduced in February.
Cullen said she has threatened lawmakers with organizing a march in Trenton, akin to the ones farmers held in April when they protested at the Statehouse in their tractors. For this issue, Cullen said, maybe she’ll invite all her disabled and wheelchair-bound friends to gather in Trenton.
“County transportation is a critical need,” she said, adding that she felt it saved her life after her stroke 10 years ago. “People don’t realize. Here in this country, we shouldn’t have to beg. I don’t know really what else to tell you. These are people who need to go to dialysis to survive.”
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