SANTA MARIA (California) TIMES

April 20, 2007

No funds for farmworker transit planned

By Chuck Schultz/Senior Staff Writer

A draft plan for addressing unmet transit needs in the North County, which proposes bus service between Lompoc and the Santa Ynez Valley but no funding for transporting farmworkers to their jobs, was reviewed by local officials Thursday.

Santa Barbara County Association of Governments board members are scheduled to adopt the Transit Needs Assessment in May. One member, Supervisor Salud Carbajal, questioned whether “we are really being aggressive enough in meeting our transit needs,” though, including demands for a van pool program to transport farmworkers. “I continue to have concerns about what we're doing with agricultural workers, and whether we're doing enough,” Carbajal said.

A $70,000 state grant has been awarded to Santa Maria and county government for planning such a van pool program, and that project is expected to continue.

However, the SBCAG transit plan for the coming year again concludes that transporting Santa Maria Valley farmworkers to and from the fields doesn't qualify as “an unmet transit need” that can reasonably be solved with state Transportation Development Act (TDA) funds.

Over the past two years, numerous individuals and community groups have urged such a program be established as quickly as possible. “What we've seen,” attorney Marc Chytilo told the SBCAG board Thursday, “is that you haven't heard from the affected community.”

Expanding the Breeze bus service, now operating between Santa Maria and Lompoc, to the Santa Ynez Valley is considered a transit need that can be met with TDA funds, however. A new Breeze route would be added between Lompoc and Buellton, and possibly be extended to Solvang. As an option, Santa Ynez Valley Transit's service would be extended from Solvang to Buellton, and perhaps as far as Lompoc. Cost estimates for the various alternatives range from about $27,000 to $83,000 annually.

TDA funds, allocated to the county and cities from state gas taxes, totaled $15.6 million this fiscal year, split about evenly between the North County and the South Coast.