News, Views and Analysis from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and the Association of Bay Area Governments
Raising gas taxes for transportation improvements is not political problem, as long as voters know cash will go to fix roads and bridges, said the democrat expected to head the key House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Read More
Last week was a big one for transportation in California, with the state announcing grant award recommendations or winners for four different programs funded by Senate Bill 1 (SB 1), the state’s landmark transportation funding law signed in 2017. The nine-county Bay Area did very well with the recommendations. The region is currently on track to receive a total of $2 billion in funding over the next 10 years to support 23 critical Bay Area transportation projects. These projects range from a host of improvements along U.S. Highway 101, including Express Lanes and express buses through the Read More
Last week a report was released detailing the dramatic progress made by California Climate Investments – the statewide initiative that puts billions of Cap-and-Trade dollars to work – in supporting projects that are reducing greenhouse gas emissions, strengthening local economies, and improving public health and the environment across the state. The California Climate Investment Annual Report to the Legislature for 2018, a joint effort produced by the California Air Resources Board and California Department of Finance, contains lots of good news for the state, and the Bay Area specifically Read More
According to the Participatory Budgeting Project, participatory budgeting (PB): ... is a democratic process in which community members directly decide how to spend part of a public budget. It enables taxpayers to work with government to make the budget decisions that affect their lives. PB has been around internationally for some time and recently PB projects have been implemented locally on a limited scale in both Vallejo and Oakland. Since 2012, the City of Vallejo has engaged over 15,000 residents in allocating nearly $7 million for 25 local projects. In Oakland, over 1,200 residents of two Read More
According to the Participatory Budgeting Project, participatory budgeting (PB): ... is a democratic process in which community members directly decide how to spend part of a public budget. It enables taxpayers to work with government to make the budget decisions that affect their lives. PB has been around internationally for some time and recently PB projects have been implemented locally on a limited scale in both Vallejo and Oakland. Since 2012, the City of Vallejo has engaged over 15,000 residents in allocating nearly $7 million for 25 local projects. In Oakland, over 1,200 residents of two Read More