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.
Published: July, 2003
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
