GoLocalProv News Team
Earlier this week, Governor Dan McKee proposed a new fiscal structure for the Rhode Island Public Transportation Authority (RIPTA).
Advocacy groups are criticizing McKee’s new budget strategy. On Thursday, RIPTA’s board, chaired by RIDOT director Peter Alviti, approved the financing structure.
“Governor McKee’s half-hearted attempt at averting the worst of the proposed RIPTA cuts is weak and dismaying. The Governor precipitated this funding crisis by not taking seriously the state’s dependence on public transit. He could have funded transit in his budget last winter, to the good of all of us, as well as the 40,000 people who ride the bus every day, but he did not. While we are pleased that he has late come to the realization that the cuts his budget demanded are too high a cost to stand, we deplore the fact that he waited to the last minute and even now proposes what is not even a half-measure,” said Amy Joy Glidden, Chair, RI Transit Riders…