State Transportation Funding

State Follows Through on Threat to Gut Transit Funding

• Progress Made in Restoring Transit Operating Funds (April update)

In February California legislators passed a budget that caused groups around the state to call out "Never again!" Because the state budget must be passed by 2/3 of all legislators, a huge amount of power was concentrated in a small number of legislators whose ideology is not aligned with the majority of the state. The result: California's adopted budget eliminated State Transit Assistance (STA) funding for the current budget year and for the five years to come!

STA is the sole source of state funding for transit operations. These critical funds help transit agencies pay for fuel, maintenance, and workers to operate our trains, buses, and ferries.

The statutory existence of the program was preserved for future budget years. Senator Steinberg and Assembly Speaker Bass voiced a commitment to create a dedicated revenue stream for public transportation in the future.

The Problem

A large part of the budget problem is structural. State expenses are on the rise--due to basic inflation and a growing population--and state revenues have decreased, in part caused by a permanent cut in the vehicle license fee.

The budget deal addressed the state's 18-month $42 billion deficit. This was a record year for transit ridership in California, with some systems experiencing overcrowding and demands for increased services. Yet, because of these and previous funding raids we're simultaneously seeing fare hikes and service cuts. Download a fact sheet that outlines the context of the budget cuts.

TransForm's Work on Solutions

TransForm is convening a coalition of statewide organizations to develop strong, equitable proposals to create long-term funding for public transportation in California. Unless we build an even stronger movement for budget solutions, public transportation funds, and funding for other critical programs, we will continue to suffer in a broken budget process.

We're working on a host of solutions to raise new revenue, including:

• A climate impact fee
• Indexing the gas tax to inflation
• Creating deeper legal protections for dedicated public transit funds

If your organization wants be involved in our state-level coalition efforts, contact Nick Caston.

What's at Stake

Suspension and redirection of public transportation dollars has become a bad habit in California. This trend contributes to our deteriorating public transportation systems that cannot meet the needs of the communities that depend on them. We can't have reliable public transit without reliable funding for public transit operators. Furthermore, 41% of the state's greenhouse gas emissions come from transportation, mostly from private cars and trucks, so if Californians are serious about curbing climate change, funding public transit operations is an imperative.

Since 2000, over $4.6 billion in dedicated public transportation funds have been redirected through the state budget process. A large portion of these funds come from the "Spillover" fund, a special account that generates additional funding for public transportation in times when gas prices rise quickly, when transit agencies face higher costs and more demand for their service.

Since 2000, suspension of Spillover dollars and other shifts, loans, and transfers of transit funding have denied more than $4.6 billion in revenue to the Public Transportation Account (PTA). The 2008-09 State Budget alone cost the PTA account nearly $2 billion.