In developing transportation related legislative issues and proposals to bring forward for consideration by TWIC, staff receives input from the Board of Supervisors (BOS), references the County's adopted Legislative Platforms, coordinates with our legislative advocates, partner agencies and organizations, and consults with the Committee itself.
Recommendations are summarized in the Recommendation(s)/Next Step(s) section at the end of this report. Specific recommendations, if provided, are underlined in the report below. This report includes three update sections, 1) LOCAL, 2) STATE, and 3) FEDERAL.
1) LOCAL
2017 Countywide Transportation Plan Update (CTP): The comment period for the 2017 CTP update closed on August 1, 2017. The Board of Supervisors approved the comment letter at their August 1st meeting. As indicated in the August 1st staff report, two items were included in the letter after the TWIC review, 1: Expanded Regional Transportation Mitigation Program, and 2: Comments on the project priority list.
CTP: Accessible Transit: A considerable amount of effort was invested by the County in advocating for improvements to the accessible transit system during the CTP/TEP effort. Staff developed the attached report that summarizes the information collected and lessons learned during the effort. Staff will use report in the event subsequent advocacy activities are identified.
RECOMMENDATION: RECEIVE update, RECOMMEND that the Board of Supervisors RECEIVE the report.
2) STATE
Legislative Report
The legislative report from the County's legislative advocate, Mark Watts, is attached (August TWIC report.pdf). Mr. Watts will be present at the August meeting to discuss issues of interest to the Committee.
Also attached is the list of bills being tracked by TWIC, Aug 2017 TWIC Leg Tracking.pdf.
RECOMMENDATION: DISCUSS any state issues of note and take ACTION as appropriate.
3) FEDERAL
There has been no developments in the federal transportation context requiring that the County engage. The current administration indicated early during their tenure that infrastructure investment would be a priority. Staff continues to track this possibility, nothing concrete has materialized. As described in the information below, there is some tension or reconciliation that needs to take place between 1) the promised increase in infrastructure funding, and 2: what the source of the revenue would be to pay for the investment.
Infrastructure Spending:
The federal administration has made various announcements about increases in infrastructure spending. The Congressional Budget Office released, "An Analysis of the Presidents 2018 Budget" in July with the following statement suggesting the increases are not reflected in the federal budget:
Provide Mandatory Funding for Infrastructure
The President proposes to spend $200 billion over the 10-year period for unspecified infrastructure programs. Because the Administration did not specify the policy parameters for the proposed spending, its placeholder estimate has been incorporated into CBO’s analysis. When considering the entire set of proposals in the budget, though, overall spending on infrastructure would not increase by $200 billion. The President’s proposals for discretionary spending would reduce appropriations for other accounts that provide funding for infrastructure, such as those for ground transportation and water resources. Those reductions would largely offset the proposed increase in mandatory spending on infrastructure over the 2018–2027 period.
Flagged for reductions or elimination are the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) and New Starts grant programs. Both are highly competitive grant programs for major investments. These cuts would not have an immediate, direct impact on the County at this time.
The County has applied for TIGER grants in the past. The New Starts program funds high capacity mass transit projects, Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), light rail, heavy rail, etc. The Phase II BART to San Jose project is in the New Starts funding queue. New Starts funding is one revenue stream identified in the West Contra Costa High Capacity Transit study as a possible source of funding.
Politico Morning Transportation: 7/18/17
CALLING ALL INFRASTRUCTURE IDEAS: Senate Environment and Public Works Chairman John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and the committee's ranking Democrat, Sen. Tom Carper, have put a call out to panel members (and likely beyond) for "infrastructure priorities, policy proposals and recommendations" for a committee-produced title of a "comprehensive infrastructure bill." The committee leaders included a friendly reminder that they can't consider earmark requests because, well, you know. Submissions are due by Friday.
Related/Attached:
The Hill: 7/17/17
House panel backs bill to slash Transportation funding
"The bill would entirely eliminate the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant program... The DOT spending bill also reduces funding for the Capital Investment Grant (CIG) program, known as New Starts, by $660 million, bringing its total funding to $1.75 billion. "
RECOMMENDATION: DISCUSS any federal issues of note and take ACTION as appropriate.
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