The State Senate Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Assembly Transportation and Housing Committee have convened their first respective hearings on transportation. These hearings come days after Governor Brown proclaimed a Special Session on Transportation to address the funding needs of California’s transportation network.
The hearings provided background on how California’s state and local transportation systems are financed. Committee members heard from state and local transportation leaders with respect to their transportation funding needs and priorities, including reports of an estimated $8 billion annual gap in funding just to address the maintenance needs of local streets and roads. The Senate and Assembly will continue discussions over how to address the needs of the state and local transportation systems, and meet with transportation stakeholders in an effort to gain feedback to draft funding proposals.
RCRC will continue to engage with other transportation stakeholders to discuss strategy for securing additional transportation revenues, and will support advocacy efforts over the coming weeks. Several weeks ago, the RCRC Board of Directors voted to support Senate Bill 16 (Beall) which provides much-needed monies to address the maintenance backlog for state highways and the local road systems.