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Table Of Contents
Message from the Chairman
Bush Administration Budget Proposal Called ‘Disappointing’ Will Grow Market Far Less than APTA Plan
For Miller, Projects are a Hole in One
Hynes-Cherin ‘Walks the Talk’
Business Members Kick-Off Tactical Plan Focusing on Critical Issues
Message from the Chairman
Business Member Call to Arms!
By Bill Lochte, Bombardier
When asked of her three priorities for her term as APTA
Chair, Celia Kupersmith said: 1) reauthorization, 2) reauthorization and
3) reauthorization. And for good reason. While many projects and issues
will confront us in the coming year, there is no matter more critical
to the long-term prospects for the public transportation industry in North
America than an even stronger federal partnership.
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ACTION CALENDAR
KEY EVENTS:
KEY BUSINESS MEMBER ACTIONS:
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Unfortunately, the early news out of the Bush administration
is not encouraging, and we need to get organized now. As Cliff Henke notes
in his article beginning on this page, the administration is calling for
a far more modest public transportation vision than what APTA is urging.
The proposal is particularly curious right now, given
the industry’s track record as an engine for economic growth and the special
role it played in keeping the country moving after Sept. 11, 2001. Like
some who forget when the mess after an earthquake or big snowstorm is
cleared, the administration apparently has suffered a disconnect between
its proposed budget and the need to keep public transportation growing
so the country can keep moving ahead.
We business members also have a special role this year:
to help our elected officials understand these connections again. With
a Congress and an administration more amenable to private sector solutions
rather than big government programs, we must step forward to make the
business case for transit investments.
This was a central theme of the recent Business Member
Board of Governors (BMBG) Annual Meeting, held January 21 to 25 in Las
Croabas, Puerto Rico. The BMBG Government Affairs Committee chaired by
Sharon Greene came up with an action plan for business advocacy in 2003.
The plan includes the following themes:
Business Member Reauthorization Timeline: As APTA
and other interest groups pitch their proposals, the administration crafts
legislation to address its own priorities, think tanks release new policy
studies and Congress continues to hold hearings, a “gameplan” to show
how the whole process fits together is essential. Jerry Premo and Nuria
Fernandez have devoted considerable energy to the development of a timeline
to show how (PT)2 and other initiatives fit into the overall strategy.
This effort is being supplemented by a monthly TEA 21 reauthorization
checklist that describes what’s happening in Washington, what APTA is
doing and local actions needed in the coming month.
Transit Means Business Breakfast: As part of APTA’s
Legislative Conference, APTA’s Business Members will sponsor a special
breakfast event on Monday, March 10, that will focus on the importance
of business in the advocacy of public transportation. The breakfast, with
a target audience of both private and public sector members, will feature
Paul Weyrich speaking on opportunities for the private sector to influence
the debate on transit funding. Weyrich’s keynote comments will be followed
by a roundtable discussion featuring business lobbyists who will provide
the nuts and bolts ideas on how the private sector can be effectively
mobilized in this most critical year for transit advocacy.
Business Member Congressional Outreach: Under
a new initiative we are calling “Adopt-a-District,” each APTA Business
Member will be asked to stay in contact with a number of congressional
offices they will visit, fax, e-mail or phone regularly until TEA 21 is
authorized, aided by tools provided through APTA. When appropriate, business
members will also mobilize their employee workforce to drive home the
business and jobs connections to Congress. Jolene Molitoris, Nancy Butler
and Marlene Connor are heading this effort.
Geographic Information System (GIS) Initiative:
Under the direction of Chuck Wochele, this extremely successful initiative
identifies business locations in each congressional district. Colorful,
graphical maps are printed to show the location of transit service and
the initiative shows how business serves and is sustained by transit funding
in each district. However, approximately two-thirds of APTA’s Business
Members still have not responded to surveys asking for the locations of
their various offices. Please provide APTA with the needed information
and help make this initiative an even bigger success. Also, please use
the maps in your visits with your congressional offices.
Participate in APTA’s Legislative Conference:
APTA needs to make a statement to Congress in March, and we need to show
our colleagues on the operating systems side of APTA that this matters
to us too. The messages are tried and true, but more urgent than ever:
The time has come to give Americans real freedom freedom and choice; that
infrastructure investment is what is needed to jump-start our economy,
not just in the city that gets the grant but in many other places in the
country where that city spends the grant money; that transportation alternatives
are now even more important to national security after Sept. 11; and that
the public and private sectors are united in a partnership to make these
things happen. Again this year, special events are being organized to
bring these messages to Capitol Hill — with a business focus.
Careful Ongoing Review of Each Reauthorization Proposal:
Business Member Government Affairs Committee Chair Sharon Greene appointed
Cliff Henke and Jerry Premo to give a special look at the various reauthorization
proposals to be released this year and highlight any provisions that may
have particular applicability to the supply side. I also ask each of you
to contribute your time and insight to helping them as appropriate in
this effort.
I join Celia Kupersmith in calling for reauthorization
as the top priority for the coming year. It will not be easy " but
neither were the historic achievements we made with TEA 21. As that effort
taught us, the only way to do it is with teamwork. If we will all lift
a little of the weight, we can do the job! "
Bush Administration Budget Proposal Called ‘Disappointing’ Will Grow Market Far Less than APTA Plan
By Cliff Henke,
North American Bus Industries
The Bush administration released its Fiscal Year 2004
budget proposal on February 3, providing a glimpse of its forthcoming
proposal to reauthorize the federal public transportation assistance program
— and its contents are less than encouraging to those looking for a revived
public transportation goods and services marketplace.
In fact, APTA President William Millar immediately issued
a statement, calling the proposal “disappointing” in light of the pent-up
demand for bus and rail service in the U.S. As such, APTA business members
will be on Capitol Hill this spring and summer during the reauthorization
process trying to convince their elected officials to sweeten the public
transportation pot as a jump-start to economic activity.
President Bush proposes spending $7.2 billion in fiscal
year 2004, which begins Oct. 1, 2003 — exactly the same amount his administration
wants to spend in the current fiscal year. (As Business in Motion went
to press the current fiscal year’s transportation appropriations bill
was still pending in Congress; the Federal Transit Administration is currently
running on a continuing resolution.)
This level is 11% less — about $900 million less — than
the amount urged in APTA’s reauthorization proposal for next fiscal year.
If the administration’s full proposal, which was not yet released at press
time, sticks to President Bush’s State of the Union address, suggesting
that programs grow no more than 4% per year or limiting increased spending
on highways and transit to the rate of growth in revenues from the existing
gas tax, the gap between APTA’s recommendations and the administration’s
could be even greater.
While APTA says that the need for more public transportation
service justifies at least a $65.8 billion program between FY 2004 and
FY 2009, the Bush administration’s long-term intentions appear to be headed
for a $47.8 billion total proposed for the same period. That would be
a drop of more than 27% below the APTA funding position.
The administration’s budget proposal is even more curious
given the recession that the nation is facing. Study after study concludes
that investments in public transportation stimulate business activity.
Some have even showed that federal public transportation assistance represents
one of the best stimulants to the economy and job creation, far better
than investments in defense, for example. Last year, APTA released one
of the most recent reports on this connection, called “Public Transportation
Means Business.” It showed that every $10 million increase in transportation
capital investment by government creates 310 jobs and $30 million in business
sales. That is far better than the multiplier effects of tax cuts. Further,
new estimates by the U.S. DOT show that every $1 billion invested in public
transportation infrastructure supports approximately 47,500 jobs, proving
that transit continues to be an economic engine and jobs creator.
These types of investments result in real business expansion
and in real jobs, often in places not typically associated with areas
that benefit from public transportation spending. In fact, virtually all
transit bus manufacturers locate their manufacturing facilities in rural
areas. These include Lamar, Colo., where Neoplan USA is headquartered;
Anniston, Ala., home of North American Bus Industries Inc.; Wichita, Kan.,
where Optima Bus Corp. is located; and Imlay City, Mich., the factory
location of Champion Bus. Kawasaki, which is manufacturing heavy rail
vehicles for New York City Transit, just broke ground on a new manufacturing
facility in Nebraska. Each of these facilities employs hundreds of workers
and generates tens of millions of dollars in economic activity throughout
the local economies of these “heartland” communities.
Accordingly, APTA Business Members have a stake in telling
their elected representatives in Washington that their decisions mean
business, added Bill Lochte, chair of the Business Member Board of Governors
and APTA Vice President of Business Members. To that end, a variety of
legislative strategies are being planned for the reauthorization campaign,
particularly during the APTA Legislative Conference in March.
In addition to funding levels, business members are following
several other issues related to reauthorization. Foremost of these are
the so-called “funding firewalls” created in TEA 21 that have guaranteed
stable funding during the past six years and which APTA hopes to continue.
Under this provision, the law protects most of the annual authorized funding
amounts from the threat of budget cuts. These guarantees have been instrumental
in ensuring that the program grows predictably each year. This predictability
has been especially important to many business members planning new product
development and other risky strategic decisions based on future market
demand. Further, the certainty that guaranteed funding provides enables
grantees to get more “bang for the buck” in leveraging funds to finance
multi-year projects.
The administration’s budget proposal assumes a number
of structural changes to the federal transit program. It would eliminate
the discretionary bus and bus facilities program — $607 million in FY
2003 — and use those funds to increase other programs. That is a major
deviation from APTA’s carefully crafted consensus proposal, and is counter
to the overall call by congressional leaders that TEA 21 reauthorization
this year should be “evolutionary” rather than “revolutionary” in nature.
Another proposal that the Bush administration hopes to
include in reauthorization is the reduction of the federal match ceiling
to 50%. Although current rates of local match have been averaging this
amount for several years now, APTA opposes this proposal as a part of
law because it places public transportation investments at a disadvantage
to highways, which under the Bush proposal would still enjoy the 80-20
federal match allowance. This is particularly a problem for states and
localities planning new surface transportation investments in the current
budget-strapped fiscal climate. Indeed, a new report released by the National
Conference on State Legislatures shows state budget gaps growing at an
alarming rate. According to the new study, two-thirds of the states must
close a $26 billion gap between now and June 30, when most states’ current
fiscal years end.
Clearly, the supply side of public transportation has
much at stake this year. Conversely, however, federal officials need to
hear the very important economic and employment benefits generated by
the federal transit assistance program. In today's economically challenged
climate, there are no better evangelists of this message than APTA Business
Members.
For Miller, Projects are a Hole in One
Growing up in Ontario, Canada, Larry Miller knew at a
young age that he wanted to be involved in city planning. "I’ve always
been interested in the structure of cities and the growth of communities,"
Miller says.
Part
of his career path may have been influenced by his father, who served
as a volunteer board member of St. Catharines, Ontario’s planning commission
for 13 years. After receiving his master’s degree in urban and regional
planning, Miller went on to a number of local government jobs coupling
planning and consulting work, which kindled an interest in public transportation.
Miller then headed two transit authorities, British Columbia Transit and
the Regional Public Transportation Authority of Phoenix. Those positions
enabled Miller to see the impact that rapid transit projects, such as
the Skytrain in Vancouver, had on shaping the community.
Miller has since taken his enthusiasm for transit project
development to the private side, where he is currently in his twelfth
year with Gannett-Fleming. As vice president – manager of transit systems,
Miller manages the development and planning of projects worldwide. “That’s
been a real benefit to me in terms of playing a role in transit projects
internationally,” he says.
Miller’s involvement with the BMBG began when he filled
a seat held by Gannett-Fleming. Miller sees his role on the BMBG as an
opportunity to bring together the perspectives of the consulting side
of the business, operations and his experiences as a former executive
of the Canadian Urban Transit Association.
Miller says the establishment of an open communication
among members is important so that an understanding about issues in the
business world is developed. Miller is also on APTA’s legislative committee
and on the BMBG’s intercity transport task force, which focuses on developing
a role for APTA in legislative discussions about intercity transport in
the future, specifically high-speed rail and intercity bus, he says.
When not travelling across the globe for various projects,
Miller is in the process of moving his home base from Seattle to Phoenix,
where he is heading an $800 million peoplemover project. Miller�fs favorite
pastime is golf, he says without skipping a beat.
Hynes-Cherin ‘Walks the Talk’
When it comes to transportation, Brigid Hynes-Cherin
“walks the talk,” so to speak.
“I don’t own a car. I haven’t owned one in 17 years,”
she says, adding that she has been fortunate to live in cities where this
is possible.
Hynes-Cherin’s
interest in transportation began in college, when her mother talked to
her about the difficulties of having to use public transportation to get
to work. “My mom got me into it because she was a user of transportation,”
she says. Hynes-Cherin went on to obtain a degree in transportation from
George Washington University. She then worked for the Federal Transit
Administration (FTA) as a community planner reviewing grants, planning
and environmental studies.
Dealing with environmental issues at the FTA piqued her
interest enough to enter law school, where she studied environmental law.
In addition to the federal realm, Hynes-Cherin has held positions in the
public and private sectors. She currently is vice president at Parsons
Corp., where she has been employed since 1999. “All of those [areas] have
a different perspective. It really helps to know how the other side thinks,”
she says. Hynes-Cherin brings this approach of joining the needs of the
industry together through her involvement in APTA, where she took part
in the legislative and policy and planning committees.
Once her career brought her to Parsons, Hynes-Cherin
was elected to the BMBG, where she is currently chair of the liaison committee.
One of her main goals as chair is to see more business members elected
to the executive committee. At Parsons, where her current projects include
the Hampton Roads and the Denver West corridor projects, Hynes-Cherin
revels in the planning stages of projects — seeing environmental justice
and economic development work together. “I think what we are doing in
the industry is important, and becoming more important all the time,”
she says.
Hynes-Cherin, who lives in the heart of Washington, D.C.,
says after her job, she cares most about spending time with her family
" one sister and eight brothers. -- have 23 nieces and nephews, which
is just great," she says.
Business Members Kick-Off Tactical Plan Focusing on Critical Issues
During the BMBG annual meeting in January, more than
50 business members participated in the kickoff meeting for the Business
Member’s Tactical Plan. Development of a tactical plan to guide APTA’s
business member activities in the future is one of the key activities
identified by BMBG Chair Bill Lochte for this year.
The tactical plan focuses on some of the most critical
issues facing our industry and its business members in the years to come.
The BMBG will complete a draft tactical plan this spring and will seek
feedback from APTA’s business members on the draft plan during listening
sessions held at the APTA bus and rail conferences in May and June.
In preparing for their work on this important plan, the
BMBG polled APTA’s supply-side members electronically on what was important
to them relative to their membership in the association. More than 160
members responded to the survey, most of who are manufacturers or suppliers
and consultants. Twenty-six of the respondents classified themselves as
small businesses. Following are some results from the survey.
The key messages that the business members provided
in their survey responses were:
Reauthorization is a top priority. Business support on Capitol Hill
and across the country is critical to building needed support for public
transportation.
Expanding business opportunities is why the private sector is actively
engaged in APTA.
Business members want to enhance their relationships with their customers
through productive networking opportunities.
Business members want to be full partners in APTA and a distinct part
of the Association’s governance.
The top three things that satisfy business members most about
their APTA membership are:
Networking opportunities within the industry.
Services available to business members such as conferences, the APTA
Website and reports and other information.
Access to information on opportunities at individual transit properties
and industry-wide or technological developments.
The top three things that satisfy them least about their membership
in APTA are:
Inclusion of business points of view in APTA activities.
APTA’s effectiveness in representing business members.
Access to information on opportunities at individual transit properties
and industry-wide or technology developments.
The top three priority areas for action by BMBG in the next five years
should be:
Reauthorization of TEA 21.
Ensuring a healthier business climate for the supply side of the industry.
Procurement reform.
The top three things that business members can do to contribute more
to APTA are:
Increase their participation on industry committees.
Become more involved in seminars and sessions at APTA meetings.
Increase their participation in APTA lobbying efforts.
The top three things that APTA can do to contribute more to its
business members are:
Increase leadership opportunities for supply-side members.
Increase supply-side participation in seminars and sessions at APTA
meetings.
Design services for business members such as research, e-commerce
and conferences.
A strong partnership between transit agencies and the industry�fs business
members is vital, both externally and internally within APTA. The issues
are too big and too important for all of us, and a united front, based
on mutual support, is essential. We will continue to keep our business
members informed of our progress on these important efforts. Anyone who
would like to become involved in this process can contact Fran Hooper
at APTA. We look forward to your feedback at the bus and rail conferences
later this year.
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Doing Business Inside the Beltway
Breakfast Meeting
Monday, March 10, 7:30-8:45 AM
JW Marriott, Salons I & II
Kick off the Legislative Conference learning how APTA Business
Members can shape the upcoming reauthorization discussion. Leading
conservative Paul Weyrich will talk about opportunities for the
private sector to influence the debate on transit funding, followed
by a roundtable discussion featuring our own business lobbyists
with the nuts and bolts details on how to play your business card
in Washington D.C. |
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