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March 26,
2007
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UPCOMING MBTA
EVENTS |
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MBTA 2007 Annual
Meeting
Thursday, May 3
Senator Inn,
Augusta
Transportation Day at the
Legislature
Wednesday, May 23
State House,
Augusta
For more information,
contact the MBTA at (207) 622-0526
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OTHER EVENTS
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MaineDOT Safe Routes to School
Conference
March 27
Augusta Civic Center
For
information, click
here.
MAPA Annual Paving
Seminar
March 29-30
Verillo's
Convention Center, Portland
Click here for registration information or call
Larry Hutchins, (207) 838-1379
2007 Northeast Transportation Safety
Conference
"Advances in Transportation Safety -
how far have we come?"
April 25-26
Sheraton Hotel,
South Portland
Sponsored by the Maine
Transportation Safety Coalition. For information, click here.
MRG, Inc./Downeast Rail
Annual Meeting & Train Ride
May 19 Rockland/Brunswick For more
information, contact Jack
Sutton.
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ACTION ALERT: Your
opinion and support for the transportation bond is
critical
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Public hearing Wednesday, March 28 @ 8
a.m.
As you know, the MBTA and our leadership have
been working with the Governor and legislative leaders on a
biennial transportation bond package. This Wednesday the
Appropriations and Transportation Committees will hear testimony
on the Governor’s proposed $131 million bond. The hearing will be
held in Room 228 of the State House.
We need our members there
in force!
We are in the middle of a
full-blown funding crisis; last week the Administration told the
Transportation Committee to anticipate an additional $19 million
in cuts to the capital program. Even before this news, more than
$200 million in projects had been cut over the past 18 months.
Since this is a critical stage in the development of
a transportation bond, we need members there to either testify
(testimony is limited to three minutes) or simply be there in the
audience to show support. Please let us know if you are able to
attend by calling the office or e-mailing me or Maria at maria@mbtaonline.org. For
details on what is in the bond package, please click on TransBondInfo. More information is available at
www.mbtaonline.org/advocacy.htm
Those who
wish to testify need to sign up in advance by calling Diane Pruett
at 287-1316 or diane.pruett@legislature.maine.gov.
Talking
points:
- Discuss why the mode you are advocating for needs
funding. Speak to why those investments will make a
difference to your region.
- Hundreds of jobs have been lost in the last two
years, jobs that often pay an average of $18 per hour of
more .
- Investing in transportation yields a 5.4
return and is the quickest way to get the economy
moving.
- Our transportation system is unsafe. A recent
voter poll shows that Mainers are worried about their families
traveling on our deteriorating roads.
- Maine may be posting 50 percent more roads this year
(3,000 miles), which is devastating to certain
industries.
- Maine’s bridges are failing. In the last few
years, the number of bridges that are 80 years or older has
doubled!
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Mark your calendar: April 6 @ 1
p.m. |
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“An Act to Secure Maine’s Transportation
Future,” the bill being sponsored for MBTA by Senator Dennis
Damon, will be heard on Friday, April 6, 1 p.m. in the
Transportation Committee Room, Room 126 of the State House. The
bill doesn’t yet have an LD number as it hasn’t been printed, but
we will let you know once it is out.
We will need to have
a strong turnout for that bill as well.
Again, please let
us know if you can testify for either hearing, or simply
attend to show support. We need
both!
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