AASHTO Journal, 7 November 2014
Transportation funding measures were on ballots in several states and cities on Nov. 4, and voters showed mixed levels of support for infrastructure investment proposals.
Overall, transportation was “another big election winner” this month, said the American Road & Transportation Builders Association’s Transportation Investment Advocacy Center, which calculated that voters embraced 67 percent of related ballot measures. Those that passed, said ARBTA-TIAC, “will provide nearly $15 billion in additional in revenue for transportation projects.”
They include an $8 billion sales tax plan in Alameda County, Calif., that will put $5 billion into transit, plus bicycle and pedestrian paths, and $3 billion into roads. In nearby San Francisco, voters approved $500 million in bonds for a wide range of projects.
Pete Ruane, ARBTA’s president, said the results show the public wants investments in mobility and will pay for it, regardless of the state’s political leanings. “The newly elected Congress and the White House must take note and do their job and permanently fix the Highway Trust Fund,” Ruane said. He noted that, on average, states get 52 percent of their road and bridge capital spending from federal programs.
Jim Tymon, director of policy and management for the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, said the state and local measures “are all about keeping up with the needs of our transportation infrastructure alongside the federal stream – not to be a substitute for it.”
In one of the biggest Nov. 4 gains for project advocates, Texans voted to steer half of receipts now going into its “rainy day fund” from oil and natural gas taxes into transportation project accounts. That measure, which could put an extra $1.2 billion to $1.7 billion a year into projects without raising taxes, won with 80 percent support.
But in Austin, the state capital, area voters rejected a $1 billion bond plan that would have put $600 million toward a new urban rail transit project and $400 million into roads, but would have raised property taxes.
And in neighboring Louisiana, voters turned down a plan for a state infrastructure bank that could have deposited some state funds into an account targeted for roads, bridges and other infrastructure work.
In both Maryland and Wisconsin, voters approved ballot measures that aimed to put transportation tax revenues into a “lockbox” so government officials cannot redirect that money to other state budget accounts.
Massachusetts voters backed a measure that repeals part of a 2013 transportation revenue law. That earlier law increased the state’s per-gallon motor fuel tax 3 cents a gallon and indexed the fee so it could automatically rise each year with inflation. This month’s ballot measure removed the indexing piece, meaning state legislators will have to vote to raise gas taxes in the future.
Voters in two areas of Florida rejected sales tax proposals, one for mass transit in Pinellas County and one that would have gone mostly to fund Alachua County road projects.
However, Forsyth County, Ga., voters backed a bond proposal for a $200 million highway widening project. Outside of Washington, D.C., in Fairfax County, Va., voters approved a $100 million bond issue for transportation projects.
Rhode Islanders backed a series of bond proposals, including one to put $35 million into mass transit.
And a number of transportation issues fared well in western states. Localities in Arizona and Colorado voted for small sales tax increases, and Seattle adopted a proposal to increase bus transit funding.