Proposed Alabama Bill Would Fund Public Transit

An Alabama state senator is proposing a new funding mechanism for public transit, citing concerns that many of the state’s residents don’t have access to jobs due to a lack of transportation. As Alexander Willis explains in an article for Alabama Daily News, “Alabama’s labor participation rate was 57.5% in August, among the lowest rates in the country. State lawmakers last year established a commission to investigate the root causes of the state’s low labor participation rate. A lack of reliable transportation was one of the key findings.”

Senator Linda Coleman-Madison (D-Birmingham) introduced Senate Bill 11 to improve the state’s public transit system, which frequently ranks among the least developed in the nation. The bill would add a $5 charge to vehicle license and registration fees to generate revenue for transit.

Coleman-Madison says the bill could have a transformative impact when combined with available federal matching funds. According to policy advocate Dev Wakeley, “State investment here could bring down more federal money, and if you’re talking about a good return on investment, you can’t really get much better than the four-to-one capital matching rate for federal funds.”