This week, the Senate Transportation & Infrastructure Development Committee held a hearing to review several legislative proposals. Senate Bill X1 1 (Beall) was heard and serves as the key transportation funding proposal advancing out of the Committee. SB X1 1 would raise significant new revenues for the existing state and local transportation system through increases in various transportation-related funding sources.
The RCRC Board of Directors (Board) adopted a “support” position on a similar measure – SB 16 (Beall); however, SB 1X does not contain the five-year sunset provision found in SB 16. As such, the Board has not considered SB 1X.
In addition to SB X1 1, the Committee reviewed Senate Constitutional Amendment X1 1 (Huff), which RCRC has adopted a “Support if Amended” position. SCA X1 1 would provide constitutional protections to various transportation funding sources. The Committee has yet to advance the measure due to concerns surrounding provisions pertaining to the vehicle license fee – provisions that RCRC has also expressed concerns about. Both SB X1 1 and SCA X1 1 require a two-thirds vote in both houses of the Legislature. At this time, securing the two-thirds vote remains a challenge, particularly for increasing revenues.
RCRC also supported two other important transportation bills that were not considered during this week’s hearing, including SB X1 11 (Berryhill) to provide exemptions from environmental regulations for specific transportation projects, and SB X 1 14 (Cannella) to extend Public Private Partnerships.