A senator has proposed a bill to impose a $5 annual fee on vehicle registrations to fund public transportation in Alabama.
The fee that would be created under SB 11, sponsored by Sen. Linda Coleman-Madison, D-Birmingham, would create a revenue source for the Alabama Public Transportation Trust Fund, which remains unfunded since it was created in 2018.
“Whether you are trying to get to a job or trying to get your child to a day care so you can go to work, transportation is the key. It’s the missing link,” Coleman-Madison said in a phone interview.
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The proposed fee would generate approximately $26 million annually and allow the state to draw down additional federal money for public transportation, Coleman-Madison said.
“Right now, other states are not only pulling down their own federal dollars but ours as well, because we don’t have the funds to match,” she said.
The funds would be distributed to counties based on vehicle registrations, allowing local governments to address specific needs. These could range from large bus systems in urban areas to smaller, community-specific services in rural regions.
A 1952 amendment to Alabama’s constitution prohibits the use of state gasoline tax revenues for anything other than roads and bridges, which Alabama Arise, a progressive nonprofit working on issues for low-income people, views as the “the most logical source of state funding for transit,” leaving the state’s public transit system without a dedicated funding source.
Dev Wakeley, worker policy advocate at Arise, pointed to its potential to expand access to jobs, health care services and education while boosting the state’s economy.
He said that even in the state’s best-served areas, it’s only first-shift workers who typically have a way to get to and from work.
“If you’re working second-shift, you may be able to get to work, but you can’t get home, and this is true even on weekends. There’s no public transit system in Alabama that operates past 11 p.m., even on Friday or Saturday night,” Wakeley said.
He said the economic benefits are significant, with each $1 million invested in public transit creating about 40 jobs.
“These are good jobs, by the way. These are good, high-wage jobs that are sufficient in salary to enable people to buy a home, raise a family, and they’re long-term jobs as well,” he said.
The bill faces hurdles in the Republican-controlled legislature. Coleman-Madison introduced similar bills in 2023 and 2024, but the legislation did not reach a committee.
The 2025 Legislative session begins Feb. 4, 2025.
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