Despite acknowledging that their recent actions have dealt a critical blow to public transportation in California, state budget crafters decided yesterday that now is not the time to begin reversing the damage they’ve wreaked.

By unanimous vote, the Budget Conference Committee upheld the Governor’s call to divert another $336 million in historically transit-dedicated funding to cover other holes in the General Fund. The figure represents unanticipated “spillover” revenue now projected by the Department of Finance to materialize in 2009-10.

“We can’t say this move comes as a great surprise, considering the road they’ve been leading us down the past several years,” said Joshua Shaw, Executive Director of the California Transit Association. “We thought there was a chance they might throw us a bone by actually directing a small portion of transit’s money to transit, but this was one instance where they decided it was easier to just give in to the Governor’s demands.”

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