Placer's Looming Transportation Problem

For many years, PCTPA has recognized the widening gap between transportation needs and the funding available. In August 2000, the Board adopted the Regional Transportation Funding Strategy which identified $1.7 billion of transportation needs over the next 20 years, compared with an estimate of $267 million in assured funding over the same period. As a result of this strategy, the Agency led the effort to establish the South Placer Regional Transportation Authority (SPRTA) and the enactment of the Regional Transportation and Air Quality Mitigation Fee Program. This also allowed the Agency to leverage over $93 million in state-controlled Interregional funds for Placer projects.

While these efforts show significant progress, the gap between needs and funding continues to worsen. Strong growth in Placer County has increased the demand for regional transportation facilities, such as I-80, SR 65, and the rail system. Even pared down to the most critical project needs, the estimated cost is still $5.6 billion. Meanwhile, there have been numerous raids on promised State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) funds to balance the State budget that, based on recent news reports, are likely to occur again in FY 2008/09 and beyond.

In the face of these challenges, PCTPA has been aggressive, creative, and successful in seeking ways to obtain and leverage any and all funding available. In 2002, PCTPA was able to borrow against future county shares in the STIP to fund the Lincoln Bypass. In 2005, we received a phenomenal $71.6 million of Federal earmarks provided by the leadership of Congressman Doolittle for widening of the I-80 Bottleneck in Roseville. More recently, we were able to attract more than $130 million in competitive funding from the Proposition 1B infrastructure bonds for the Lincoln Bypass and I-80 – an amazing amount for a county Placer’s size. The combination of these State and Federal funds mean that three phases of the I-80 Bottleneck project, as well as Phase 1 of the Lincoln Bypass, are fully funded, and are either under construction now or will be in the next two years.

However, these State and Federal transportation funds are all one-shot deals that we will not likely see again. That still leaves Placer a long list of projects needed now that will not be funded for many years given our current resources, or may never be funded. In fact, based on current projections for the STIP, it will be 2024 or 2025 before we repay our advance, and perhaps 2035 before we amass the funds to complete the final phase of the I-80 Bottleneck project.

The Regional Transportation Funding Strategy Steering Committee, formed by the Board in 2004, has been working hard since its formation to examine the significant transportation needs for Placer County, as well as the universe of funding options, and make associated recommendations to the Board. In 2006, the steering committee concluded that the best alternative should include impact fees and a transportation sales tax to help leverage expected State and Federal funding sources in order to get needed transportation projects implemented in Placer.  The result of the Committee’s efforts, the Draft Transportation Expenditure Plan, was presented to the Board in June 2007. The Board approved the release of the Expenditure Plan for extensive public outreach and comment.

As a result of this Board direction, staff implemented an aggressive outreach program to educate the public on the transportation funding challenges, and get input on the Expenditure Plan. That program included countywide public workshops; presentations to a wide variety of community groups, business interests, and others, such as chambers of commerce and rotary clubs; presentations to each city/town council and the County Board of Supervisors; fact sheets, information packages, and other data distributed via web site enhancements, direct distribution, and other outlets; press releases, editorial board meetings, press packages, and other media outreach to generate substantial and accurate media coverage; and a Transportation Leadership Summitt which coincided with the September 2007 California Transportation Commission meeting in Rocklin.

The current Regional Transportation Funding Strategy effort has shown over $5.6 billion in project needs, including $3.7 billion on regional facilities and $1.9 billion in local needs. This compares with about $3.3 billion in assured funding over a 30 year period, leaving a $2.3 billion deficit. The previously proposed Placer Transportation Expenditure Plan uses a combination of additional developer impact fees and a transportation sales tax and leverages future State and Federal funding to fund 14 critical projects and programs. The “Tier 2” developer impact fees cited would be enacted by jurisdictions or joint powers authorities like SPRTA. A transportation sales tax would require a 2/3 majority approval of voters at a general election.

Taxpayers for Traffic Relief and Safety Taxpayers for Traffic Relief and Safety (TTRS) is a group of community and business leaders formed to educate the public on the need to fund transportation improvements. As part of their private education and outreach effort, TTRS did polling on the transportation sales tax proposal. On November 26, TTRS distributed a press release to announce the results of their polling. It showed that, although voter support for a transportation sales tax was substantial at 58-60%, it was still far short of the 2/3 majority needed for passage. The TTRS group recommended that PCTPA defer placement of the sales tax on the ballot until at least 2010.

On November 26, the Funding Strategy Steering Committee met to consider the updated Expenditure Plan that takes into account all the most recent information from the extensive public outreach conducted over the past several months. Much of the discussion centered around the results of the polling done by the TTRS, the relationship to the Expenditure Plan, what can be done to increase public awareness of the issues, and implications for the future of transportation in Placer County. It was the consensus of the Steering Committee to recommend that the Board:

• defer placement of a transportation expenditure plan on the countywide ballot;
• use the draft Transportation Expenditure Plan as a starting point for continued discussions on transportation funding needs;
• work with the Steering Committee and other key leaders to implement a more strategic public outreach effort, and
• do polling on an annual basis to help guide the transportation funding strategy effort.

The PCTPA Board approved this recommendation on December 6, 2007.

To date, there continues to be no available local transportation funding source to help bridge the funding deficit for Placer's transportation needs.