Post by bennyp81 on Jun 15, 2005 10:39:45 GMT -8
Robert
User ID: 2037954 Apr 26th 6:52 PM
BAY AREA
Budget woes may put transit plans on skids
Governor wants to borrow gas tax funds
Michael Cabanatuan and Lynda Gledhill, Chronicle Staff Writers
Sunday, April 25, 2004
San Francisco Chronicle
sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/04/25/TRANSIT.TMP
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger may be used to life in the fast lane, but critics say his proposed transportation budget could drive the state back to the mid-1970s, when then-Gov. Jerry Brown braked highway spending to a full stop.
Already, more than a third of the nearly 200 projects on the Bay Area's transportation spending list face delays of as many as five years -- projects that include freeway widenings, carpool lanes, additional BART parking and new train stations.
And the gridlock threatens to get grimmer.
Bob McCleary, executive director of the Contra Costa Transportation Authority and a veteran of 25 years in the state's transportation bureaucracy, has survived four major downturns in transportation spending, but this one, he said, is the worst -- worse than the mid-1970s, when Brown froze Caltrans spending on new projects for six months and laid off nearly 3,000 employees.
"The possibility is there,'' said McCleary, when asked whether ongoing projects could be halted by this transportation financing crisis.
The problems started during the administration of former Gov. Gray Davis, who plundered the transportation treasury of $2.2 billion as the state's budget hole grew deeper.
Schwarzenegger finds himself in a similar predicament. His budget proposal would transfer nearly another $2 billion in transportation funds to the state's general fund by suspending Prop. 42, which voters approved in 2002 and devotes sales taxes paid on gasoline to highway and transit improvements.
If approved by lawmakers, it would bring the total taken or loaned from transportation funding to more than $4 billion over four years, according to the legislative analyst's office.
In addition, the budget proposal also would end the Transportation Congestion Relief Program, the 181 projects that were guaranteed funding by Proposition 42 from the gas tax until 2008.
"It would be like a highway pileup,'' said Randy Rentschler, spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the Bay Area's transportation planning agency. "Some projects could be salvaged; a lot couldn't.''
The state legislative analyst's office is preparing a list of projects that might need to be shut down if the governor's budget passes, McCleary said. Two big Bay Area projects -- Muni's Third Street light-rail extension and Caltrain's Baby Bullet express trains -- could be affected, though both agencies think they're far enough along and have enough money available from other sources to avoid having to stop work.
Bay Area transit planners are waiting to see what action the Legislature takes before trying to figure out how projects might be affected and determining whether the region needs to rearrange its spending plans and priorities.
"We're not going to go through that kind of pain just on speculation,'' said the Metropolitan Transportation Commission's Rentschler. "But it doesn't mean we're not thinking about it.''
Lawmakers are well aware of the implications of shutting down projects.
Republicans in the Legislature have decided to make transportation a key issue -- telling Schwarzenegger that they want any extra money that comes in to the state to go straight to transportation projects.
"Transportation funding is our highest priority," said Senate Republican Leader Jim Brulte of Rancho Cucamonga (San Bernardino County). "Transportation expansion is critical to growing the California economy."
But Republicans aren't likely to see much extra money headed their way. Democrats, while supportive of transportation, have staked out their priorities as health and human service programs.
The administration is looking at other sources of funding, including $800 million in federal bonds, to allow some projects to move forward.
"Clearly, one of the difficult decisions in closing a $14 billion budget gap was suspending Prop. 42," said H.D. Palmer, spokesman for the Department of Finance.
Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill said delays in transportation spending cost the state $4.7 billion in wasted time and fuel a year. She recommends that the state use its gas tax to make up for the lost revenue.
That idea is not likely to win much support from elected officials, but the administration is exploring ways to stabilize transportation funding in the future.
"The governor wants to get to a situation where the budget has structural balance so that we can resume the kind of investments he, Republicans and also Democrats believe are important," Palmer said. "There are needs out there that we are not able to meet immediately because we are still paying for the largesse of the past."
Some lawmakers have also introduced a constitutional amendment to close the loophole in Prop. 42, making it impossible to borrow money from the fund.
"When the money gets taken repeatedly, people lose faith that government is carrying out the will of the people," said Assemblyman Keith Richman, R-Northridge (Los Angeles County), who helped write Prop. 42.
Business groups would like to see more transportation investment, but are also realistic. Bill Hauck, president of the California Business Roundtable, said companies want to see the state commit to a reliable investment in transportation projects.
"We recognize that we what we need is a steadier long-term financing scheme," he said. "The bottom line is that if we can't move people and goods, the economy is in trouble."
---Slow lane---
State budget woes have meant delays for Bay Area transportation plans. Some of the nearly 100 projects that have already lost funding and face delays -- ranging from one to five years -- include:
-- The Oakland Airport light-rail connection to BART
-- Additional BART parking at Richmond
-- Extending the Interstate 80 carpool lane from Hercules to Carquinez Bridge
-- Widening Highway 101 through the Novato Narrows
-- Adding carpool lanes to Highway 101 in the San Rafael and Santa Rosa areas
-- The Devil's Slide tunnel on Highway 1
-- Widening Highway 92 and adding slow vehicle lanes in San Mateo County
-- Completing a southbound carpool lane on the Sunol Grade on I-680
-- Improvements to the I-80/I-680/Highway 12 interchange at Cordelia junction
PaulC
User ID: 0986624 Apr 27th 12:32 AM
Jesus! so many highway improvment. So sad.
Paul
John
User ID: 9510053 Apr 27th 11:11 AM
If the governor and/or state legislature were using transit funds for other purposes, that would upset me. If, on the other hand, they are using highway funds to pay for other things, who cares?
Robert
User ID: 2037954 Apr 27th 11:43 AM
John,
The governor is taking funds away that subsidize your bus service. No money, higher bus fares, that simple. All of us must care.
User ID: 2037954 Apr 26th 6:52 PM
BAY AREA
Budget woes may put transit plans on skids
Governor wants to borrow gas tax funds
Michael Cabanatuan and Lynda Gledhill, Chronicle Staff Writers
Sunday, April 25, 2004
San Francisco Chronicle
sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/04/25/TRANSIT.TMP
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger may be used to life in the fast lane, but critics say his proposed transportation budget could drive the state back to the mid-1970s, when then-Gov. Jerry Brown braked highway spending to a full stop.
Already, more than a third of the nearly 200 projects on the Bay Area's transportation spending list face delays of as many as five years -- projects that include freeway widenings, carpool lanes, additional BART parking and new train stations.
And the gridlock threatens to get grimmer.
Bob McCleary, executive director of the Contra Costa Transportation Authority and a veteran of 25 years in the state's transportation bureaucracy, has survived four major downturns in transportation spending, but this one, he said, is the worst -- worse than the mid-1970s, when Brown froze Caltrans spending on new projects for six months and laid off nearly 3,000 employees.
"The possibility is there,'' said McCleary, when asked whether ongoing projects could be halted by this transportation financing crisis.
The problems started during the administration of former Gov. Gray Davis, who plundered the transportation treasury of $2.2 billion as the state's budget hole grew deeper.
Schwarzenegger finds himself in a similar predicament. His budget proposal would transfer nearly another $2 billion in transportation funds to the state's general fund by suspending Prop. 42, which voters approved in 2002 and devotes sales taxes paid on gasoline to highway and transit improvements.
If approved by lawmakers, it would bring the total taken or loaned from transportation funding to more than $4 billion over four years, according to the legislative analyst's office.
In addition, the budget proposal also would end the Transportation Congestion Relief Program, the 181 projects that were guaranteed funding by Proposition 42 from the gas tax until 2008.
"It would be like a highway pileup,'' said Randy Rentschler, spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the Bay Area's transportation planning agency. "Some projects could be salvaged; a lot couldn't.''
The state legislative analyst's office is preparing a list of projects that might need to be shut down if the governor's budget passes, McCleary said. Two big Bay Area projects -- Muni's Third Street light-rail extension and Caltrain's Baby Bullet express trains -- could be affected, though both agencies think they're far enough along and have enough money available from other sources to avoid having to stop work.
Bay Area transit planners are waiting to see what action the Legislature takes before trying to figure out how projects might be affected and determining whether the region needs to rearrange its spending plans and priorities.
"We're not going to go through that kind of pain just on speculation,'' said the Metropolitan Transportation Commission's Rentschler. "But it doesn't mean we're not thinking about it.''
Lawmakers are well aware of the implications of shutting down projects.
Republicans in the Legislature have decided to make transportation a key issue -- telling Schwarzenegger that they want any extra money that comes in to the state to go straight to transportation projects.
"Transportation funding is our highest priority," said Senate Republican Leader Jim Brulte of Rancho Cucamonga (San Bernardino County). "Transportation expansion is critical to growing the California economy."
But Republicans aren't likely to see much extra money headed their way. Democrats, while supportive of transportation, have staked out their priorities as health and human service programs.
The administration is looking at other sources of funding, including $800 million in federal bonds, to allow some projects to move forward.
"Clearly, one of the difficult decisions in closing a $14 billion budget gap was suspending Prop. 42," said H.D. Palmer, spokesman for the Department of Finance.
Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill said delays in transportation spending cost the state $4.7 billion in wasted time and fuel a year. She recommends that the state use its gas tax to make up for the lost revenue.
That idea is not likely to win much support from elected officials, but the administration is exploring ways to stabilize transportation funding in the future.
"The governor wants to get to a situation where the budget has structural balance so that we can resume the kind of investments he, Republicans and also Democrats believe are important," Palmer said. "There are needs out there that we are not able to meet immediately because we are still paying for the largesse of the past."
Some lawmakers have also introduced a constitutional amendment to close the loophole in Prop. 42, making it impossible to borrow money from the fund.
"When the money gets taken repeatedly, people lose faith that government is carrying out the will of the people," said Assemblyman Keith Richman, R-Northridge (Los Angeles County), who helped write Prop. 42.
Business groups would like to see more transportation investment, but are also realistic. Bill Hauck, president of the California Business Roundtable, said companies want to see the state commit to a reliable investment in transportation projects.
"We recognize that we what we need is a steadier long-term financing scheme," he said. "The bottom line is that if we can't move people and goods, the economy is in trouble."
---Slow lane---
State budget woes have meant delays for Bay Area transportation plans. Some of the nearly 100 projects that have already lost funding and face delays -- ranging from one to five years -- include:
-- The Oakland Airport light-rail connection to BART
-- Additional BART parking at Richmond
-- Extending the Interstate 80 carpool lane from Hercules to Carquinez Bridge
-- Widening Highway 101 through the Novato Narrows
-- Adding carpool lanes to Highway 101 in the San Rafael and Santa Rosa areas
-- The Devil's Slide tunnel on Highway 1
-- Widening Highway 92 and adding slow vehicle lanes in San Mateo County
-- Completing a southbound carpool lane on the Sunol Grade on I-680
-- Improvements to the I-80/I-680/Highway 12 interchange at Cordelia junction
PaulC
User ID: 0986624 Apr 27th 12:32 AM
Jesus! so many highway improvment. So sad.
Paul
John
User ID: 9510053 Apr 27th 11:11 AM
If the governor and/or state legislature were using transit funds for other purposes, that would upset me. If, on the other hand, they are using highway funds to pay for other things, who cares?
Robert
User ID: 2037954 Apr 27th 11:43 AM
John,
The governor is taking funds away that subsidize your bus service. No money, higher bus fares, that simple. All of us must care.