Please note: Editorial Board member Katherine Griswold did not participate in shaping this editorial.
STAFF AT AAATA first agreed to a meeting with The Ann Arbor Independent’s Editorial Board concerning the proposed millage. Then, after being told who the Board members are—including the former head of the University of Michigan bus system, AAATA cancelled the meeting.
We have watched, concerned, as AAATA, the Ecology Center, Partners For Transit and More Buses Now have served up fear-mongering, vitriol and cherry-picked facts about the millage proposal and AAATA’s own efficiency and staffing. We are concerned that over $1 million has been given over to date on this campaign by AAATA—money which could have gone toward service improvements. We are deeply concerned that campaign finance forms revealed that the AAATA’s millage campaign has been funded in large part by the Ecology Center and a handful of political appointees, local politicians and Michigan GOP power brokers. We are deeply concerned that this millage campaign has been described by the Ecology Center in its emails and literature sent to voters as a progressive “grassroots” effort.
Voters deserve to be told the truth about who’s behind a millage drive, who’s funding a millage drive and who stands to gain financially from a millage drive. AAATA and Partners for Transit have obfuscated these important facts even as the groups sought to “educate” voters.
The AAATA millage campaign has, in large part, focused on the elderly and the disabled. Who, after all, would be so hard-hearted as to vote against bus service for the elderly and the disabled? However, Carolyn Grawi, who heads the Partners For Transit ballot committee and who works for the Center for Independent Living, could not say how many elderly or disabled individuals use AAATA services now or why those services need to be expanded.
For the past decade, AAATA’s service has focused almost exclusively on the needs of commuters as opposed to the city’s elderly and disabled residents. AAATA service has subsidized business owners whose employees can’t afford to live in Ann Arbor. Our bus service has subsidized those who own businesses downtown. The members of the Editorial Board question how AAATA can better serve all Ann Arbor residents by adding half a dozen routes when, according to AAATA officials, “expanded” service will continue to focus on commuters. Expanded service will continue to provide subsidies to thousands of downtown workers in the form of $10 annual bus passes while K-12 students pay $48 per month for their passes.
There are other questions. AAATA CEO Michael Ford has said the $22 million in new millage money would not be used to fund trains. However, Mr. Ford has never said whether any of the money from AAATA’s other $20 million in budgeted revenue would be used to continue to pay for studies and consultants for train projects such as the WALLY. WALLY is a proposed commuter train between Ann Arbor and Howell. Livingston County officials have repeatedly said they will not fund the WALLY.
Hiding behind front groups (a so-called third-party technique) is a tactic used by conservative political organizations, including the Koch Brothers. Creating and then controlling front groups—in order to manipulate voter perceptions—is a tactic denounced by respected progressive groups such as Think Progress as well as the Center for Media and Democracy. The More Buses Now and Partners For Transit “grassroots” campaign has been led by two paid staffers, both of whom are employed by the Ecology Center.
Campaign finance forms show Partners for Transit raised $42,427.20—$34,000 of which was raised from just a handful of sources, including AAATA Board members, Mayor John Hieftje and the Ecology Center.
We are appalled that the Ecology Center’s Martha Valadez sent out this email from her More Buses Now address: “We expect our opponents to spend tens of thousands of dollars at the last minute to spread confusion and misinformation.” Ecology Center director Michael Garfield then sent out a fundraising email using a More Buses Now email address in which he made the unsubstantiated claim that the citizen-led Better Transit Now group would receive $20,000 in funding at the last minute.
This newspaper does not endorse in candidate campaigns or ballot questions. It educates voters. The paper has documented instances of deception, fear-mongering and manipulation on the part of those in charge of the Ecology Center’s campaign. The newspaper has revealed that the Ecology Center’s subsidiary, Recycle Ann Arbor, enjoys a multi-million dollar no bid contract with the City of Ann Arbor.
We believe deception, political cronyism, manipulation and fear-mongering have no place in a community discussion as important as this one.