Streetsblog CA

The California Transportation Commission began the process of allocating funds from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund at its monthly meeting on Friday. The first official allocations for the Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program went to Sacramento, LA's MetroLink, and San Diego for projects that will allow them to offer better transit service, thus encouraging transit ridership and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Amid the swirling madness that is the final few weeks of the California legislative session—all bills must be voted on by September 11, or wait until next year—the question of how to raise, and spend, money on transportation is still very much up in the air. Increasingly, it looks like major decisions will be made behind closed doors and out of the public eye.

At a press conference in Sacramento yesterday, Senate President Pro-Tem Kevin de Leon dismissed the idea, floated by Republican legislators and anti-tax advocates, that revenue in the state's Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction fund could be used for road maintenance and repair.

On Friday, in separate press events in Los Angeles and San Francisco, several members of the California legislature presented new bills for consideration in the ongoing legislative special session on transportation funding.

Each time California legislators consider its climate change policies, questions arise about what benefits the state is receiving for its current investments. Until today, there has been no centralized source of data on the state's investments from its cap-and-trade program nor on resulting greenhouse gas emissions or other benefits.

In Sacramento, bills are beginning to move more quickly through the committee process as this week's policy committee deadline approaches. Below are highlights on some of the bills pertaining to sustainable streets issues.

After some delay and a surreal debate, a bill that could help create affordable housing by easing parking requirements passed the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee on Tuesday on a 5-4 vote. Now it goes to the Committee on Governance and Finance, where it will be heard as soon as next week.

The California legislature held its first joint special session on transportation funding just before the holiday weekend. The session was called by Governor Jerry Brown when he and the legislature punted some big decisions so they could sign a budget before the June 30 deadline.

After last week's warning that Assemblymember Mike Gatto's legislation to create a "Yellow Alert" system was imperiled by Senate Transportation and Housing Committee staff and the California Highway Patrol's (CHP) objections, there was a feeling of a looming showdown before today's committee hearing. Assembly Bill 8 would create a system to use electronic road signs and the emergency alert system to notify people when a deadly hit-and-run crash occurred to help apprehend suspects. A similar system has proven effective in Colorado.