California's $20 Billion Transportation Bond

"Proposition 1B would authorize the state to sell about $20 billion in general obligation bonds to pay for projects that ease congestion and improve goods movement, air quality or transportation safety and security."

"So far, there is little organized opposition. A taxpayers organization that is battling the bond measure has not raised enough money to register with the secretary of state as an opponent.

Environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, are neutral on Prop. 1B.

Yet many of their members had urged opposition, saying it steers too much money toward highways and relies on the state's general fund budget instead of raising the cash -- perhaps through higher gasoline taxes, higher bridge tolls or fees to use express lanes. The initiative also does nothing to halt suburban sprawl, they say.

"Transportation has proven itself to be one place where voters have been willing to vote for taxes and user fees,'' said Stuart Cohen, executive director of the Transportation and Land Use Coalition, a Bay Area group that favors alternatives to driving. "Basically, if this passes, it's paving the roads with school books and health facilities when transportation could pay for itself.''

Randy Rentschler, spokesman for the Bay Area's metropolitan planning organization, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, had a different perspective.

"Proposition 1B is going to be the best chance for voters to do something about transit in the Bay Area, about congestion relief in the Bay Area for a long time,'' said Rentschler. "This bond gives big projects like that a chance to happen."

Thanks to ABAG-MTC Library