Posted on 06/22/2019 4:22:17 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Marin transportation officials were cautiously optimistic Monday after a recent court ruling upheld a major funding source for several local highway projects, but the funding could be in limbo because of appeals.
“We have tremendous congestion and these projects are congestion relievers,” said Dianne Steinhauser, executive director of the Transportation Authority of Marin. “We hear from the public constantly about how bad the congestion is right now. We’re hoping that this money starts flowing. It’d be great to see it by the end of 2019.”
Regional Measure 3, the June 2018 ballot measure that increases tolls for seven Bay Area bridges to raise $4.5 billion for local transportation projects, has now been upheld twice this year following two separate challenges filed by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and Oakland resident Randall Whitney.
The two lawsuits claimed the toll hikes were a special tax and therefore required a two-thirds majority vote for approval under California law. In both cases, the San Francisco Superior Court sided with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and the associated Bay Area Toll Authority, which manage the tolls and revenues.
MTC spokesman John Goodwin said the most recent ruling was not a surprise as MTC worked with the Legislature and legal staff to ensure that the ballot measure was legal.
“We ultimately do look forward to having all of this behind us and having the will of the voters put into effect and getting some much-needed projects done,” Goodwin said.
Marin Supervisor Damon Connolly, who sits on the MTC and Bay Area Toll Authority board, called the court’s rulings “clear, well-reasoned and unequivocal” and added that by dismissing so them “early at the pleading stage underscores that the challenges are meritless.”
(Excerpt) Read more at marinij.com ...
PING.
Oh, you mean Marin, CA. I thought the headline was about a transportation company named Marin.
No problem just sue for lack of environmental impact study and then sue for Global warming! No new roads for you Libs!
Raise taxes, California. That’s your solution to every problem.
This is the same Marin County that has blocked the extension of the light rail that runs down from Santa Rosa to San Rafael, to the SF Ferry Terminal, which necessitates a bus bridge (no train tracks in our place). Marin is a NIMBY county which coincidentally has the highest percentage of Jews in all of California (10%). They have also held up highway construction to Sonoma County because “they fear” that making a commute easier from the counties to the north will “negatively affect” housing prices in Marin.
This is the same Marin County that has blocked the extension of the light rail that runs down from Santa Rosa to San Rafael, to the SF Ferry Terminal, which necessitates a bus bridge (no train tracks in our place). Marin is a NIMBY county which coincidentally has the highest percentage of Jews in all of California (10%). They have also held up highway construction to Sonoma County because “they fear” that making a commute easier from the counties to the north will “negatively affect” housing prices in Marin.
thank you Lord, for giving us the foresight and wisdom to leave there 26 years ago.
If you want to stop the project, plant a spotted owl carcass in the way.
Let’s see, Marin is an area that serves as a pass through point between San Francisco and cities and towns further north of Marin all the way up to Santa Rosa. Will the highway changes necessarily benefit the Marin residents, or will the towns and cities north of Marin conclude, with those highways improvements, that they can add to their housing stock and wind up offsetting the highway improvements with more people who will just add to to commuters using the highways?
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