In a resounding victory for those who provide and those who depend on public transit in California, the State Supreme Court late yesterday rejected the Schwarzenegger Administration’s appeal of a lower court ruling that annual raids on transit funding are illegal.

By declining to accept the Petition for Review filed by state officials, the high court upheld the ruling of the Third District Court of Appeal that recent funding diversions violated a series of statutory and constitutional amendments enacted by voters via four statewide initiatives dating back to 1990.

“By denying the state’s appeal, the Supreme Court has affirmed once and for all what we always maintained was true: that it’s illegal to shift dedicated state transit funds away from transit agencies and their riders,” said Joshua Shaw, Executive Director of the California Transit Association and lead plaintiff in the case. “This decision validates our position that this practice has been illegal since even before 2007, and that the definition of mass transportation adopted by lawmakers since then to mask these diversions is illegal.”

Public transit officials now hope to work with the Administration and Legislature to restore those funds taken since the Association filed the initial lawsuit in October, 2007, on the heels of the 2007-08 state budget package that raided $1.19 billion from the Public Transportation Account (PTA). Since that agreement, more than $3 billion in transit funding has been re-routed to fill holes in the General Fund.

“This is a clear victory for the millions of Californians who depend every day on public transit to get to work, go to school and access vital health care facilities,” said Michael Burns, General Manager of the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority and Chair of the Association’s Executive Committee. “Public transit has certainly borne more than its fair share of the budget burden in recent years, and we see the effects of that throughout the state in the form of fare increases, transit service reductions, job layoffs and more. We’re very hopeful that the high court’s decision will now enable us to work with lawmakers to restore these funds and help us to meet the ever-increasing demands for transit services in California.”

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Click here for background on the lawsuit, including links to all relevant court documents