Summit Sows
Seeds for New Funding Plans, But Political Winds May Blow Ill
With more than three-quarters of
the attendees at the Transportation 2030 Summit expressing support
for raising new money to expand the Bay Area’s transportation
infrastructure, there was no shortage of ideas for generating
additional revenue. Less abundant, however, may be the political
opportunities available to implement them.
Mention of a $2 gasoline tax drew
claps and cheers from many in the enthusiastic, and decidedly
pro-transit, crowd. But with a $35 billion-plus state budget deficit
proving unable to sway the opinions of hardline anti-tax forces in
California, and the Bush Administration putting the kibosh on House
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Don Young’s
(R-Alaska) proposal to raise the federal fuel tax by two cents a
year for six years, the political climate for a European-style levy
appears inhospitable at the very least.
Perhaps the most promising
potential source of new money is SB 916, State Senator Don Perata’s
proposed $1 increase in tolls on state-owned toll bridges. If
approved by the Legislature, signed by the governor, and approved by
Bay Area voters in 2004, the bill would put the additional $1 into a
wide range of projects designed to ease congestion in transbay
travel corridors. Ferry services would be one of the big winners
under the bill, with the San Francisco Bay Water Transit Authority (WTA)
receiving $79 million to buy two new vessels for expanded service
linking San Francisco with Oakland and Alameda, two vessels for
service between San Francisco and a new terminal in Berkeley or
Albany, two vessels for ferry service to South San Francisco, and
two backup ferries. The cash also would help pay for expanded
berthing capacity in San Francisco, additional environmental
studies, and design for new terminal locations.
Under SB 916, another $28 million
of toll hike money would go to the city of Vallejo to build a
parking structure and an intermodal bus and ferry hub at the site of
the existing Vallejo ferry terminal. SB 916 would also provide more
than $568 million from 2005 to 2040 to finance ferry operations on
the Bay. Other projects identified for funding under SB 916 include
a BART extension from Fremont to Warm Springs (the first leg in the
planned extension to Silicon Valley), a seismic retrofit of BART’s
transbay tube, a Caltrain extension to a rebuilt Transbay Terminal
in downtown San Francisco, improvements to the Interstate 80/680
interchange in Solano County, expanded regional express bus
services, and support for new rail services in Marin and Sonoma
counties, eastern Contra Costa County, eastern Alameda County’s
Tri-Valley area and across a rehabbed Dumbarton rail bridge.
None of these projects would come
on line immediately, however. Indeed, the first wave of cash
generated by SB 916 would not begin rolling until 2005 and it likely
would take at least another year for any of the designated
investments to move from the drawing board to the boarding queue.
Acknowledging that people are often daunted by the lengthy process
of planning, permitting, and building transportation projects,
Kinsey pointed to the new BART extension to San Francisco
International Airport as proof that patience — and persistence —
can pay off. "It literally took decades to get BART to SFO,"
he said. "But public support kept the project on track, and
that effort finally has been rewarded. The ideas were talking about
today will lead to the life-changing projects of tomorrow."
John Goodwin works in MTC’s
Public Information office. At www.mtc.ca.gov, click on the
Transportation 2030 button.