For public transportation in California, the hits keep coming — facing overflowing ridership  and record costs, transit agencies must now deal with a $952 million-dollar cut in funding by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The state’s budget for roads and highways does not face a similar cutback. (San Francisco Chronicle — Rachel Gordon)

New York’s overburdened, financially-strapped Metropolitan Transportation Authority is struggling to come up with the cash necessary to support its ridership base, and a commission led by former MTA chair Richard Ravitch is looking all options available for attacking the problem. (Streetsblog — Ben Fried)

Michigan is facing a $342 million shortfall in its transportation budget that could prevent the state from getting $2 billion in federal money over the next three years, and state leaders have few options — other than raising the gas tax — for increasing revenue. (Detroit Free-Press — Editorial)

The Washington Post editorial board argues that the next administration must think deeply about the transportation challenges facing the nation and come up with new and sustainable methods for funding infrastructure.

Declining gas tax revenue and a sputtering economy have prompted Maryland’s state government to delay $1.1 billion in transportation projects over the next five years. (Associated Press — Alex Dominguez)

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution‘s Jay Bookman pushes state leaders to realize the gravity of transportation issues in the Atlanta Metro region and work together to solve them.

Federal money dedicated to transportation is quickly drying up, and states are facing tough choices on which projects they should focus their resources on — and which ones they should drop. (New York Times — David Stout and Matthew Wald, and Washington Post — Eric Weiss)

The New York Times editorial board criticizes city and state officials for underfunding New York City’s subway system and forcing riders to shoulder the burden.

Countering claims by some opponents of congestion pricing that it places a disproportionally large burden on low-income people, two academics from the University of Southern California contend that using sales taxes to pay for transportation projects is a more regressive funding method. (Los Angeles Times — Steve Hymon)

Despite significant fare increases in recent years for the New York City MTA, the city and state governments have neglected to raise their own contributions to the Authority — a fact that some say obligates the mayor and governor to do more to help the struggling agency. (New York Times — William Neuman)