VLF
An old wound is mitigated thanks to two Democratic legislators from Riverside County who made it clear from the onset what it would take for them to sign-on to the Road Repair and Accountability Act, California's historic fuel tax and fee increase.
The Press-Enterprise
Revised transportation funding legislation is needed to meet California's ballooning infrastructure deficit, but it needs a supermajority to pass, and it contains a fatal flaw for clean air activists.
Streetsblog California
As promised, Gov. Matt Bevin signed the P3 bill that allows private funding, but bans tolls, to pay for the $2.6 billion Brent Spence Bridge project over the Ohio River that connects Covington, Ky. to Cincinnati. Now he needs to find the funding.
Cincinnati Enquirer
A new report by the Bay Area Council argues that the regionwide housing crisis demands a regionwide response, i.e., all nine counties and 101 cities need to build more housing, and if they don't, there needs to be consequences.
San Francisco Chronicle
Sen. Jim Beall's transportation funding bill has been renumbered for the special session and was amended on July 14 to include a 12 cents per gallon, or 40 percent, increase in the gas tax and a 22 cents, or 169 percent, increase in the diesel tax.
Planetizen
SB 16 would also increase the diesel tax (which hasn't been raised in over two decades) by 12-cents, charge electric vehicles a flat $100 annual fee, and increase registration and license fees.
Planetizen
Despite a grassroots campaign to retain Sunday parking meter charges it only approved two years ago, the San Francisco MTA agreed with Mayor Ed Lee to drop the charges, hoping that voters would approve two transit funding measures in November.
Streetsblog San Francisco
With a 5-0 emotional vote by the city council on Thursday night, the Jurupa Valley City Council reluctantly initiated the process of disincorporation, which would result in the three-year-old city being governed by Riverside County.
The Press-Enterprise
Will Kempton, former Caltrans chief under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger who subsequently headed the Orange County Transportation Authority, now heads Transportation California which has proposed an initiative to tax vehicles to fund infrastructure.
Governing
Would you be willing to increase the annual license fee you pay on your vehicle if the funds were to go to road repair and expansion? That's the question Californians will be asked to decide if the Road Repairs Act qualifies for the Nov. 2014 ballot.
Capitol Alert (Sacramento Bee blog)
That's Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown and former Calif. Assembly Speaker Willie Brown. In two unrelated L.A. Times articles, Gov. Brown credits the initiative system for making the state governable while former speaker Brown is opposed to direct democracy.
Los Angeles Times
All four are in Riverside County (east of LA). Reduced vehicle license fees, shifting funds from cities to prisons and a huge state budget deficit created the perfect storm to drain expected revenues. Hope was placed in a bill to fix it.
Bloomberg News
For the first time since 1933, one party has 'supermajority' (greater than 2/3) control of CA's assembly and senate, and the governor's seat, except this time it's the Democrats. Legislators have their eyes on loosening the Proposition 13 leash.
San Francisco Chronicle
