(The following story by David Jesse appeared on the Times Herald website on August 29.)
PORT HURON, Mich. — With a flurry of letters and phone calls last week, state legislators are preparing for the latest battle in the fight over a state subsidy for Amtrak.
At stake is a $7.1 million subsidy Amtrak says it needs to run two lines in Michigan: the Blue Water Line, which runs from Port Huron to Chicago, and the Pere Marquette, which runs from Grand Rapids to Chicago.
The subsidy survived a serious challenge two weeks ago when a provision that would have required the state to pay the same amount of money it pays Amtrak to bus companies was put into a Senate supplemental appropriations bill. The state didn’t have the money for both payments, so the measure effectively would have killed the Amtrak subsidy.
However, the state budget office ruled because the money already had been paid out to Amtrak, the provision wasn’t enforceable.
All that was a prelude to the fight over the 2005 state budget. The Legislature expects to get a budget from Gov. Jennifer Granholm in early September. It will contain the same $7.1 million Amtrak subsidy, said Greg Bird, a spokesman for the state budget office.
Granholm and legislative leaders have been working toward an agreement on the budget and hope to have it to the Legislature early next week.
And then the conflict will begin.
“I know there’s going to be a fight, but I’m cautiously optimistic that we can keep it,” state Rep. Lauren Hager, R-Port Huron Township, said of the subsidy. He sent letters to legislators who have an Amtrak line in their districts and has spent time on the phone lobbying for support.
State Sen. Shirley Johnson, R-Royal Oak, sponsored the amendment, which would have impacted the 2004 budget. She won’t say if she’ll put a similar amendment in for the 2005 budget.
It’s a familiar fight.
In 2000, Amtrak got a $2 million subsidy from the state. After Amtrak threatened to shut down lines, that was raised to $5.7 million in 2001 and to $7.1 million in 2003.
Some residents and legislators would like to see changes.
“I keep hearing about more cuts the state is making to all kinds of programs we need,” said Mike Harrison, 33, of Port Huron. Harrison said he hasn’t ridden Amtrak since he was in college.
“Why should they (Amtrak) be getting more funding when everything else is losing it?”
Hager sees the issue differently.
“I think we have to look out for people who don’t have transportation,” he said. “I think we have a public responsibility to do that.”