Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Bulova responds to VOICE's demand for dedicated funding at the VOICE Fairfax Action in May 2017
Throughout the past year, VOICE and its sister Metro IAF organizations in DC and Maryland have called for dedicated funding for Metro transit service that does not come at the expense of working people. At actions in Fairfax and Alexandria, and then again at the state-wide action in front of 1,500 people with the gubernatorial candidates, VOICE demanded that dedicated funding for Metro was a paramount issue in Northern Virginia. However, VOICE leaders were not willing to get "funding at all cost", particularly if it meant taking retirement and benefits away from frontline workers.
On March 10th, Richmond legislators approved a $150+ million Metro funding bill that will not turn middle class jobs into working poor jobs.
Without those VOICE actions, and the local VOICE actions at the Metro Board, the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, and the half-dozen listening sessions with frontline workers, a funding bill that did not negatively impact working people would not have passed in the General Assembly.