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TRANSACTIONS NEWSLETTER ONLINE
October/November 1999
Blueprint Basics

Funding Opportunities
What makes the Blueprint more than a wishful-thinking planning exercise is the very real possibility of new, near-term revenue opportunities to fund promising projects. Indeed, MTC's goal is to formulate a Blueprint whose general view of the future and specific program of projects can inform the debate over--and influence the outcome of--several crucial, early-millennium funding measures that may find their way to the ballot at both the state and regional levels.

State Infrastructure Funding
In January, the state Legislature is expected to take up a variety of proposals for funding new infrastructure investments in California, ranging from ongoing general fund support to bond measures that might appear on the November 2000 ballot.

County Sales Tax Plans Voters in Alameda County likely will be presented with the chance to renew the county's existing half-cent sales tax for transportation in November 2000. Marin, Solano and Sonoma county voters may have similar opportunities. Additionally, state legislation to extend or enact these special taxes by simple majority vote on a future statewide ballot was debated by the California Legislature in 1999, and will likely be taken up again in 2000. If successful, such legislation would increase the odds of success for voter-approved local sales taxes for transportation.

Blueprint Project Notebook
Blueprint Project NotebookThe pent-up demand for new transportation facilities for the Bay Area is high. To get a fix on the magnitude, MTC planners combed through study reports and plans, as well as similar documents prepared by other regional stakeholders. They also cataloged projects appearing in expenditure plans emerging in connection with proposed local transportation sales taxes, and solicited project ideas at a kick-off public meeting on the Blueprint held in June. In all, MTC identified upwards of 200 distinct proposals for adding capacity, improving safety, closing gaps, smoothing intrasystem links, and the like. With many of these proposals consisting of multiple elements, the preliminary estimate of their aggregate capital cost is a staggering $22 billion to $33 billion.

The universe of candidate projects has been compiled by MTC and published as the Blueprint Project Notebook. To order a copy, contact the MTC-ABAG Library:

e-mail library@mtc.ca.gov
fax 510.817.5932
phone 510.817.5836

Building Consensus
MTC staff has met with various transportation stakeholder groups around the region, including local elected officials and the business and environmental communities, to assess receptivity to the Blueprint proposals. Public outreach is also a key part of the process. A round of workshops is being held in all nine Bay Area counties this fall, cosponsored in each case by the local congestion management agency. The last of this series of meetings will be held in San Francisco on Dec. 16, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the offices of the San Francisco Transportation Authority, 100 Van Ness Avenue.
-- Joe Curley & Brenda Kahn

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