RTA, laid-off drivers pushing for 'flexible spending' law

CLEVELAND -- Five-year RTA bus driver Gregory Davidson has been laid off from autoworker and bank jobs.

He thought his RTA job was secure. But on April 4, Davidson will be one of 185 RTA workers out of a job.

"Who would ever imagine public transportation would lay off? I put all my eggs in this basket. Now they are cracking," he said.

Davidson and other cities' transit systems' drivers just went to Washington to push for a new law proposed by Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown that might save their jobs.

Right now, federal funding for brick and mortar projects and equipment purchases can only be used for those purposes.

Brown is proposing a measure that would give bus systems flexibility to use some capital improvement dollars to run buses and pay drivers for the next five years.

"I get a lot of letters from people who rely on the bus. If we're going to get the economy on track, it means people in neighborhoods have to be able to get to work," Brown said.

RTA funding sources, sales tax, fares and state and federal help sources are all down in the rough economy.

"The ablity to move money around would be great. In this economy in Northeast Ohio, it can help us be stable and sustainable in the future, preserving routes and jobs," RTA General Manager Joe Calabrese said.

Brown hopes to piggyback this measure on other fast-tracked legislation, rather than go through the normal legislative process.

He predicts it could pass in several months. What this means to Gregory Davidson is simple.

"It would help me keep my job," he said.

Some opponents to the measure claim there's no guarantee the money won't be used for on-the-job driver raises instead of recalls.

A similar measure involving federal stimulus dollars recently let RTA save 57 jobs.