SACRAMENTO (June 30, 2009) - As lawmakers race to beat the deadline for adopting a state budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1, negotiations hit a new wrinkle today when the Third District Court of Appeals in Sacramento ruled that annual raids on public transit funding are in violation of state law.

While the Court claims no authority to order repayment of funds re-routed in past budget deals, the decision means that continued diversion of voter-mandated transit funding is illegal going forward. And that means that approximately $1 billion earmarked for the General Fund as part of current negotiations must be restored to transit.

“The ruling clearly states that the rip-offs are illegal,” said Joshua Shaw, Executive Director of the California Transit Association and lead plaintiff in the suit that was originally filed over $1.19 billion taken from the Public Transportation Account (PTA) as part of the 2007-08 budget agreement. “It says they’ve been illegal since before 2007, and it says that the definition of mass transportation that lawmakers have adopted since then to mask these diversions is illegal.”

“This is a clear victory for the millions of Californians who depend every day on public transit to get to work, school and health care facilities.”

• Click here to read the full press release
• For more background on the case, click here
• For the full text of the court’s decision, click here.