Oral arguments are scheduled for today in a court case that public transportation advocates hope will put an end to the massive raids on transit funding that have
plagued state budgets for more than a decade.

The Third District Court of Appeals will hear testimony this afternoon in Shaw v. Chiang, the California Transit Association’s lawsuit filed nearly two years ago in response to $1.26 billion in transit funds being diverted as part of the 2007-08 State Budget. The Association argued that the funding raid violated a series of statutory and constitutional amendments enacted by voters via four statewide initiatives dating back to 1990.

“It’s too late now to get that money back, but that was only part of the motivation for filing the suit in the first place,” explained Joshua Shaw, Executive Director of the Association and lead plaintiff in the case. “The actions on the part of the Governor and the Legislature in that year’s budget agreement opened the door for the evisceration of public transit funding, in blatant disregard for the will of the voters.”

Click here to read the full press release

Click here for more background on the lawsuit