Koch Brothers Behind Local Transit Losses Nationwide

In recent years, Koch-funded groups like Americans for Prosperity have worked to tank more than two dozen local transit measures nationwide, according to the New York Times.

Their efforts are often successful. Times writer Hiroko Tabuchi explains how earlier this year, Americans for Prosperity helped ensure the loss of a $5.4 billion transit plan in Nashville. In Indiana last year, they fought a plan to raise a billion dollars through a gas tax. And in New Jersey, they campaigned against a proposed gas tax increase.

The anti-transit campaigns are one piece of a broader opposition to big government and taxes, apparently driven both by libertarian philosophy and financial interest. As Tabuchi points out, Koch Industries companies produce gasoline, asphalt, and car parts, and the political groups they fund have proved willing to support government spending on highways and roads.