SANDAG’s bold new initiative has been looming over the heads of legislators for months, but a recent compromise may have given it the push it needed to move forward. Recently, the SANDAG Board approved a spending blueprint upwards of $600 million, hoping to add new lanes to core freeways and (unfortunately) bestowing SANDAG significant resources to begin their railway expansion plans.
This isn’t all that’s in the cards for the public transportation giant. The blueprint paves the way for SANDAG to implement future taxes towards funding their proposed projects. Due to rising construction costs and various other factors, the current sales tax, TransNet, is projected to reel in $10 million dollars less than anticipated, resulting in a need for such a future increase. Voters could see new SANDAG-imposed tax proposals on their ballots as soon as 2022.
Elected officials are starting to get frustrated—and rightfully so. Agency officials have started suggesting freezing funds for highway projects in order to free up funding for rail design, ignoring the fact that a portion of the 2004 voter-approved tax increases was (and is still) allotted for highways.
Though some are still vocalizing support for such a compromise, it should be noted that treading deeper into a commitment to SANDAG’s new projects could drown the agency in lawsuits. SANDAG Executive Director Hasan Ikhrata warned about impending lawsuits if SANDAG could not meet its funding targets.
Even with proper funding, SANDAG has already proven itself to be incompetent with its allocation and has a history of running over budget, making voters wonder if they’re really to be trusted with the improvement of an already unpopular public transit system.
When the final proposal is laid in the laps of voters, one can only hope that Californians will see that the risks outweigh the few hypothetical benefits of SANDAG’s public transportation dreams. Until then, all we can do is shake our heads in absolute disappointment at the dumpster fire that is SANDAG.
