Transportation Funding

The taxpayer-subsidized infrastructure financing program known as Build America Bonds (BABs), which would get a big boost in the Senate’s new jobs bill, has proven helpful for local transit agencies and other transportation officials seeking a way to fund big new projects during a crushing economic recession. New York’s MTA sold $750 in BABs last … Continued

Compelling infrastructure news out of the Senate last night: The long-delayed successor to the 2005 federal transportation law could come to a vote sooner than the spring 2011 timetable sought by the Obama administration, thanks to a promise secured by Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH) in exchange for his vote in favor of the Democratic jobs … Continued

The Obama administration’s awarding of $1.5 billion in competitive transportation stimulus grants on Wednesday sparked elation in cities such as Kansas City and New Orleans. But those celebrations were more than just anecdotal evidence of the so-called TIGER program‘s urban impact, according to a new analysis from the Brookings Institution’s Rob Puentes. (Chart: The Avenue) … Continued

Joel Epstein, a communications and public policy expert who writes at the Huffington Post, has written a column on the need for Los Angeles to get behind the "30/10" plan proposed by Move L.A. and backed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to accelerate the Measure R transit projects  so that all of them are completed in the next decade.  For those of us that have never completely grasped how the Mayor was going to pull off spending thirty years worth of revenue twenty years before it was completely collected, Epstein breaks down a daunting laundry list of all the policy changes that would be needed to achieve Move L.A. and the Mayor's goals.

Representatives from Washington's road and transit lobbies joined Senate environment committee chairman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) today to call for swift passage of job-creation legislation that is slated for a vote in the upper chamber of Congress on Monday.

It's taken me the better part of a day to figure out how best to write about this Sunday's Editorial in the Times concerning the Governor's plan to end the transit subsidy that is part of the gas tax and cut the gas tax.  After spending the bulk of the column attacking the "gimmicks" that created the state transit subsidy and painting transit advocates as disingenuous for decrying the raids on the subsidy; the Times ends with a call for more funding for transit projects.  Regardless of what one thinks of the Times' coverage of issues, they are the "paper of record" for the second most populous city in America, and largest in the state of California so the influence of its editorial page shouldn't be discounted.

Yesterday brought news of two grim transportation numbers from the Obama administration: 2 and $53 million.

Senate Democratic leaders appeared this morning to tout their commitment to passing a job-creation bill by the end of next week -- but the substance of their jobs measure, including the fate of pivotal transportation provisions, remains up in the air.