The California Transportation Commission (CTC), part of the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), recently cut approximately $754 million from the state’s transportation program for the next five years.
This move was made after CTC officials evaluated projected and current financial data for the program from multiple sources.
California’s program for transportation infrastructure is crucial to planning budgets for intercity rail, state highway and transit improvements. The CTC’s revisions show how the estimated, additional declines in the gasoline excise tax have changed California’s finances for transportation infrastructure.
This decrease is the biggest reduction that the transportation program has seen since the current finance structure was developed two decades ago.
“What this means is that almost every county in California that relies on this source of funding for projects that improve traffic and air quality will have to cut or delay projects indefinitely,” CTC Chairwoman Lucy Dunn said. “The commission adopted the most optimistic scenario we could make in good conscience, in the hopes that an agreement will be reached on a number of reforms and new funding increases currently under consideration by the Legislature. But failing that, I fear we will be faced with even more Draconian cuts next year.”
