November 15, 2021

The Honorable Kathy Hochul
Governor of New York State
NYS State Capitol Building
Albany, NY 12224

Subject: Adopt the Transportation and Climate Initiative in New York State

Dear Governor Hochul,

We, the below-listed partners of the Partnership for the Public Good, urge you to sign New York State on to adopt the Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI).

Partnership for the Public Good (PPG) is a community-based think tank in Buffalo, NY that builds a more just, sustainable, and culturally vibrant Buffalo Niagara through action-oriented research, policy development, and citizen engagement. We are a partner-based organization with over 300 partner groups, primarily in the Western New York area. Each year, our partner groups vote on which policy changes are most important to advocate for in the coming year. In 2021, our partners voted the implementation of TCI in NYS onto our agenda as a high priority.

The TCI's cap-and-invest plan calls for a tax on the carbon-generating fossil fuels that constitute the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in New York State. These fossil fuels tremendously compromise our health and climate. Implementing the TCI would generate an estimated $1.4 billion each year for New York to use to combat climate change. These funds should then be invested into the NYS’s public transportation system—to both maintain and expand the system to better serve our communities. 

The TCI was conceived with the primary purpose of directing new funding to the expansion and improvement of clean, sustainable mobility options. This is critical, especially for our communities that have been underserved and disproportionately impacted by our historically car-centric transportation policy choices. In the City of Buffalo, 28% of households do not have access to a car. The most efficient and effective way to address mobility justice is to dedicate the TCI revenues to public transportation, both urban and rural. New York has long needed a new and generous dedicated funding stream for public transportation as its transit agencies and mobility providers tend to move from one financial crisis to the next.

New York State (NYS) played a significant role in the multi-state effort to devise the TCI plan. However, to date, NYS has not signed on to the plan. We need your signature, Governor Hochul, so that New York can join Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and the District of Columbia in adopting this desperately needed plan.

We urge you to lead the way by adopting the Transportation and Climate Initiative. Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire are also still reviewing the plan.  If these states follow New York's example, 12 states containing 50% of the U.S. population will reap the climate, health, and mobility benefits of this negotiated cap-and-invest program.

Sincerely,

ACCESS of Western New York

Buffalo Parent Teach Organization

Citizens for Regional Transit

Colored Girls Bike Too

Designing to Live Sustainably

FeedMore Western New York

Grassroots Gardens Western New York

Greater Eastside Fields of Dreams Block Club Association Inc.

Green Options Buffalo Inc

Groundwork Buffalo

Locust Street Art

Partnership for the Public Good

Prisoners are People Too, Inc.

Shared Mobility, Inc.

Spark Filmmakers Collaborative

Talking Leaves… Books

The Center for Elder Law & Justice

Urban Roots Cooperative Garden Market

Western New York Environmental Alliance

Western New York Youth Climate Council