Western North Carolina Representative Charles Taylor issued the following statement on the City of Asheville’s potential loss of transit funds flexibility:
“I have been very active in addressing the problems faced by Asheville as a result of the overreach of the U.S. Census Bureau. Funds provided by the federal government to small metropolitan areas under 200,000 (commonly referred to as Section 5307) are used to offset operating costs. However, the Census Bureau radically redefined and expanded the Asheville metropolitan area to include diverse areas such as Canton, Black Mountain, and Hendersonville. This expansion puts the Asheville metropolitan population over 200,000 and therefore reduces the City’s transit operating funds by 50 percent in Fiscal Year 2006. I think it was grossly unfair of the Census Bureau to blindside the city in this manner and to force them to scramble to find the necessary funding for transit operations for the remainder of the fiscal year.
“For the past three years, I have worked closely with Transportation Committee Chairman Don Young and Representative Howard Coble of Greensboro to provide relief for metro areas affected by this change. The House has been very understanding and supportive of providing relief for the City of Asheville while it comes up with new funding measures for the transit program. The House, with my strong support, has provided several extensions in funding flexibility.
“While the House Transportation Committee has been very active in correcting the mistakes of the Census Bureau, the Senate authorizing committee has not yet provided such assistance.
“Some folks have suggested that this situation highlights the need for Asheville to hire a lobbyist to address this issue. I have long been aware of the Section 5307 matter and the Mayor is more than welcome to walk across the block to meet with me in my Asheville office so that we can find some constructive solutions to this serious problem. I continue to support a permanent legislative fix for this problem and I have little doubt that such legislation would pass the House. However, the problem lies in the attitude of the Senate Transit Subcommittee. Therefore, I would recommend that Mayor Bellamy and other city officials come to Washington to meet with Senators Burr and Dole, and other Senators, and explain the problems faced by Asheville in this matter. I would be more than happy to facilitate such a meeting with all three of Asheville’s federal representatives.”
Editor’s note – Section 5307 flexibility extensions included the following:
H.R. 5157 provided operating flexibility relief for FY2003. This was signed into law on October 1, 2002.
H.R. 3850, a TEA-21 highway bill extension, provided additional relief from October 1, 2003 to April 30, 2004.
H.R. 4219, the second TEA-21 extension, provided metro areas like Asheville two months’ relief running from April 30, 2004 to June 30, 2004.
H.R. 5183, included an extension from October 1, 2004 through May 31, 2005.
H.R. 3, also known as TEA-LU, the final highway reauthorization bill signed into law on August 2, 2005, provided a sliding scale for transit operating flexibility: 100% availability in FY2005, 50% in FY2006, and 25% in FY2007. This was the result of a compromise between House and Senate negotiators.
