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Regional Transportation Plan Funding:

Money

Good News From Sacramento
As MTC was putting the finishing touches on the Draft 2001 Regional Transportation Plan, the state Legislature acted to put a major transportation financing measure on the state ballot in March 2002. Under Assembly Constitutional Amendment 4 -- sponsored by Fremont Assemblyman John Dutra -- voters will be asked to make permanent a temporary funding mechanism that fully dedicates the existing state sales tax on gasoline to transportation purposes.

For the Bay Area, the extension would generate an impressive $6.3 billion in new transportation revenues over the next 25 years.

The new money would go a long way toward realizing what is known as the "Blueprint" tier of the draft plan, named for last year's "Bay Area Transportation Blueprint for the 21st Century." The Blueprint looks beyond the $82 billion spending limit for the core plan, proposing a number of ambitious projects that could benefit from new funds.

The infusion of gas sales tax money would be enough to restore every street and transit system to mint condition and begin to deploy a "Lifeline Transit Network" that caters to the needs of low-income residents -- with money left in the bank to beef up the region's fleet of express buses and extend the rail network in several directions.

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