Huffman Holds North Bay Transportation Summit

July 01, 2014

PETALUMA, CA—Today, Congressman Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) held a North Bay Transportation Summit  to discuss problems facing transportation infrastructure in the North Bay, including the congested Highway 101 Sonoma/ Marin Narrows and the impending insolvency of the Highway Trust Fund, which funds transportation projects across the United States. Huffman was joined by representatives from Caltrans, SMART, Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District, and elected officials.

“I was glad we were able to bring so many transportation officials together to get the public answers on how we’re making much-needed improvements to the North Bay’s transportation infrastructure, especially along the perpetually-gridlocked Highway 101 Sonoma/Marin Narrows,” Huffman said. “But the impending insolvency of the Highway Trust Fund this August has grave implications for transportation infrastructure projects throughout the North Bay and the rest of the United States. I’ll do everything I can to avert that catastrophe and will continue to fight tooth and nail at the federal level to ensure that critical transportation projects throughout my district get the funding they need to see completion.”

At the summit, Huffman discussed the Highway Trust Fund, which funds transportation projects across the United States and will go broke this August. This could be disastrous for the North Bay’s transportation infrastructure: federal funding helps support public transportation programs, regular maintenance of our highways, and urgent projects to ensure the safety of our roads and bridges.

  • California depends on the Highway Trust Fund for roughly 48.1% of its state transportation budget.  California received $4.04 billion in fiscal year 2009, $3.99 billion in 2010, $3.94 billion in 2011, and $4.13 billion in 2012.
     
  • The San Francisco-Oakland metropolitan area receives $292,964,961 in funding for both highway and transit funding. 

Even a temporary gap in payments could significantly impact state transportation operations by delaying construction projects. Some states, such as Tennessee and Arkansas, have already halted initiating new projects because they expect a loss of federal dollars in the next few months. Caltrans today announced that without the assurance of timely project reimbursement, they will have no choice but to halt the award of any transportation projects that rely on federal funding as soon as October 2014. Should the problem persist, Caltrans may be forced to shut down ongoing projects due to their inability to absorb the federal shortfalls with state cash.

Last week, Huffman helped introduce the Stop Corporate Expatriation and Invest in America’s Infrastructure Act. This legislation will put an end to corporate expatriations and devote the resulting revenue to the Highway Trust Fund. It will raise $19.5 billion in revenue over ten years and keep the Trust Fund solvent in the short term as Congress works on a long-term funding solution. Huffman is an original cosponsor of the bill, which was authored by Reps. Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland) and Sander Levin (D-Michigan).

Huffman also released the results of a survey of 1213 Marin and Sonoma County residents, asking them to share with him their thoughts on the state of the North Bay’s transportation infrastructure: what they are happy with, what they think our priorities should be, and what we can work together to do better. The majority of his constituents indicated that the SMART Project should be the main transportation priority for Marin and Sonoma County. Approximately 71% of constituents indicated a commute of 20 or more minutes, and 37% of constituents indicated they experience heavy traffic at least every work day. The full results of the survey may be found HERE.

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