I'm at the Joint Transportation Committee meeting at the absolutely beautiful new Redmond City Hall (their council chamber are plush).
The ferry system discussions are over and the committee is on to other items for discussion.
Right now the committee is item #5 regarding an update for the statewide transportation plan. The presentation is pretty benign so far with some consultants going over plan integration and federal requirements for State transportation planning.
There are a surprising number of legislators here especially considering its campaign season. Attending are Representatives Moeller, Armstrong, Takko, Clibborn, and Liias and Senators Haugen, Swecker, Hatfield, and Kastama.
Also it looks like TVW cameras are here so video will probably be online down the road.
Stay tuned
1:45pm:
They've moved on to discuss refunds and taxes collected on non-highway fuel taxes (i.e. snowmobiles, boats etc.). Still fairly dull discussion but tolling report is next!
2:05pm:
WSDOT's tolling division has started its presentation on the 167 (Pierce County) and 509 (SeaTac to I-5) tolling studies. Tolling on both projects could make a significant amount of money that could help pay for the construction projects.
On 509 it is estimated that traffic on the new road would be about half as much with tolling on the new road, but it would still be a net revenue and relieve congestion in the corridor. Also interesting to point out all of their modeling assumes that transit vehicles would be exempt from the electronic tolls, this is a diversion from some current policy where transit is forced to pay tolls when crossing the Narrow's Bridge on Highway 16 between Gig Harbor and Tacoma.
2:25pm
Under full build option of 167 traffic diversion off of 167 would be around %50. Diversion is worst on the West side of the highway near I-5. WSDOT studied also tolling 509 and HOT lanes on I-5 to get a sense on how that might raise revenue and lower diversion. The more that is tolled revenue would increase modestly but get nowhere near covering the cost of the project (would cover less than %50 of the cost in every option.
WSDOT also studied what it would cost to build out 167 in a phased manner starting with just one lanes in each direction instead of two. In this scenario tolling could cover almost %50 of the cost of the projects, in all other scenarios tolling could cover only around %10-15. They heard from stakeholders at RAMP that the freight, government folks in Pierce County didn't want to look closely or seriously at the phased in build out of 167.
2:58pm:
WSDOT gave an update on 520 bridge replacement. Nothing new here, just an update on the meetings and funding picture. Senator Haugen mentioned that she hopes the UW and the Mayor of Seattle stay on board and constructive in regards to the project.
3:10pm:
They are now getting a DOL update. I'm signing off.
Showing posts with label joint transportation committee. Show all posts
Showing posts with label joint transportation committee. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Friday, August 6, 2010
JTC Transit Funding Meeting Number #2 is Today at Union Station
The second meeting of the JTC legislative study on transit funding is underway today and scheduled to go from 10-3pm at Sound Transit's board room in Downtown Seattle.
I'll be doing some light live blogging on the meeting right here. Also TVW is here recording and they tell me they will be putting the video up on their website next week.
The Agenda is jam packed today and includes:
1-A presentation on what is going on at the federal level with APTA President Bill Millar, who spoke at our event last night.
2-WSDOT will be presenting on the state's current role in public transportation with Katy Taylor director of the public transportation division taking the lead.
3-The panel will be engaging in two breakout sessions, one on the state's current role is and the other in the what the state's future role in public transportation should be.
4-The breakouts will report back to the larger group on some conclusions they came to, there will also be a voting exercise to identify where panel members current stand on the state role (which should be interesting).
5-There will be a section dedicated to performance management of public transit, the section is entitled "linking state goals and performance".
6-Lastly there is public comment.
Live blog:
Bill Millar is launching into his talk to give the federal picture of public transportation.
Highlights:
-This is not a WA State problem, this is a national problem.
-WA is one on the lower side of what they contribute to public transit
-Senator Haugen pointed out that this panel is about public transportation not public transit and asked Millar to focus on not just transit.
-Transit nationally was experiencing huge growth prior to being financially impacted by the major recession.
-84% of transit agencies nationally have cut service, raised fares, or laid off staff in this recession while the need for public transportation is still high.
-Gives update on the stall of a federal transportation re-authorization and highlights some of the major issues associated with re-authorization including multi-modal inter-connectivity, maintaining existing infrastructure, performance measures for federal spending, transit accessibility to rural and low-income residents, and the need for expanded transit infrastructure.
-Discusses the challenge with how to fund a future federal funding re-authorization (mix of tradtional sources like gas tax but new sources also needed).
-Summarizes how public transportation directly fits into many of the states economic, environmental.
-Re-emphasizes that WA state ranks low national in terms of State contribution towards public transportation, highlights that WA State does not put in any money to help match the federal dollars and attract federal spending to Washington. Calls out that most large states do contribute to public transit to match federal spending and they usually come up with money because public transportation supports overarching goals of the state.
10:45am
Barb from the consultant team is going over where the study is at right now based upon their work and the one on one interviews that they have conducted with stakeholder members. Explains that the goals of today's meeting is to understand the current role of public transportation in WA and to discuss the State's future role.
The specific questions that will asked today are:
-What should the state's role in public transportation?
-Are there roles that should be reduced or elimintated
-Are there roles taht should be enhanced or expanded
-Should the state take on new roles?
Areas they'll be investigating are: direct investments, policy/planing, funding, coordination and oversight.
The consultants are providing an overview on the white-paper the wrote on the current state role in public transportation. The white paper can be found online here.
Next Up: Current State Role in Public Transportation in Washington (presentation by WSDOT)
Katy Taylor director of public transportation at WSDOT is staring her presentation with an introduction discussing how her division is integrated into the rest of the department and her vision is that public transportation should become one of the core functions of WSDOT.
The main existing programs of the division are:
-Fund CTR programs
-"Engage funders" in the GTEC program (a CTR program for large urban areas that funds great programs like Commute Seattle and Downtown on the Go, unfortunately the Legislature zeroed out GTEC funding in the last biennium.)
-"Provide and support vanpool investments"
-Administer regional mobility grants
-Providing funding and guidance of park and ride lots
After Katy Taylor's optimistic presentation, Rep. Moeller asked what some of the challenges with public transit in WA are, pointing to the fact that local transit agencies are cutting back across the state leaving communities disconnected not better connected. Katy Taylor replied by explaining their creative partnership with private-public programs like the grape line that connect rural communities that are no longer served by Greyhound, but she did not specifically address what the agency can do or potentially do to address the transit funding crisis and pending service cutbacks.
2:00pm
After a lunch break and breakout sessions are over. The groups are now reporting out on the second breakout discussed that addressed what the state's role in public transportation should be in the future.
They are going through take aways that folks have from the breakout sessions.
Tom Jones had an interesting comment that for the first time he realized that transit service and GMA can be in conflict with each other. If you are providing access service for rural areas so transit dependent people can get to services, you may also be providing commuter access to exurban and rural areas that under GMA goals we don't want people to move to. Usually we think as transit being a crucial component of supporting the smart growth that GMA rightfully dictates, circumstances where transit can serve against GMA goals is an interesting twist to contemplate.
Katy Taylor is very optimistic the state of public transit in Washington and about the panel-the outcome that everyone is in it together in this process.
Jon Stanton from Microsoft is discussing the benefits of the Microsoft connector service and highlights that 70% of their connector costumers never rode a bus before Microsoft started their own service and wouldn't take public transportation if the Connector service got canceled. He then highlighted the need for more public-private partnerships. He also said that his kids think transit is cool in Europe but now here.
Rep. Marko Liias noted that he took the Sounder from Snohomish County this morning to attend the JTC meeting that he thought it was pretty cool, while he was relaxing and reading his book instead of sitting in traffic. He suggested that ST and Metro provide potential transit routes that people could take to the next JTC meeting from their homes. It might be hard for folks who live outside of the Central Puget Sound to get to ST headquarters from their homes, but surely they could utilize ST express buses of Sounder from the Eastside, Everett, or Tacoma depending on where they are coming from. It would be interesting to hear what the committee members would say about their transit riding experience especially if they've never been on transit in Washington before.
Senator Haugen said we need to get electric cars to pay their fare share for the infrastructure they use as they replace gas cars (who's drivers pay gas taxes).
3:00pm
Meeting over. Thanks for tuning in. Signing off for now, have a good weekend!
I'll be doing some light live blogging on the meeting right here. Also TVW is here recording and they tell me they will be putting the video up on their website next week.
The Agenda is jam packed today and includes:
1-A presentation on what is going on at the federal level with APTA President Bill Millar, who spoke at our event last night.
2-WSDOT will be presenting on the state's current role in public transportation with Katy Taylor director of the public transportation division taking the lead.
3-The panel will be engaging in two breakout sessions, one on the state's current role is and the other in the what the state's future role in public transportation should be.
4-The breakouts will report back to the larger group on some conclusions they came to, there will also be a voting exercise to identify where panel members current stand on the state role (which should be interesting).
5-There will be a section dedicated to performance management of public transit, the section is entitled "linking state goals and performance".
6-Lastly there is public comment.
Live blog:
Bill Millar is launching into his talk to give the federal picture of public transportation.
Highlights:
-This is not a WA State problem, this is a national problem.
-WA is one on the lower side of what they contribute to public transit
-Senator Haugen pointed out that this panel is about public transportation not public transit and asked Millar to focus on not just transit.
-Transit nationally was experiencing huge growth prior to being financially impacted by the major recession.
-84% of transit agencies nationally have cut service, raised fares, or laid off staff in this recession while the need for public transportation is still high.
-Gives update on the stall of a federal transportation re-authorization and highlights some of the major issues associated with re-authorization including multi-modal inter-connectivity, maintaining existing infrastructure, performance measures for federal spending, transit accessibility to rural and low-income residents, and the need for expanded transit infrastructure.
-Discusses the challenge with how to fund a future federal funding re-authorization (mix of tradtional sources like gas tax but new sources also needed).
-Summarizes how public transportation directly fits into many of the states economic, environmental.
-Re-emphasizes that WA state ranks low national in terms of State contribution towards public transportation, highlights that WA State does not put in any money to help match the federal dollars and attract federal spending to Washington. Calls out that most large states do contribute to public transit to match federal spending and they usually come up with money because public transportation supports overarching goals of the state.
10:45am
Barb from the consultant team is going over where the study is at right now based upon their work and the one on one interviews that they have conducted with stakeholder members. Explains that the goals of today's meeting is to understand the current role of public transportation in WA and to discuss the State's future role.
The specific questions that will asked today are:
-What should the state's role in public transportation?
-Are there roles that should be reduced or elimintated
-Are there roles taht should be enhanced or expanded
-Should the state take on new roles?
Areas they'll be investigating are: direct investments, policy/planing, funding, coordination and oversight.
The consultants are providing an overview on the white-paper the wrote on the current state role in public transportation. The white paper can be found online here.
Next Up: Current State Role in Public Transportation in Washington (presentation by WSDOT)
Katy Taylor director of public transportation at WSDOT is staring her presentation with an introduction discussing how her division is integrated into the rest of the department and her vision is that public transportation should become one of the core functions of WSDOT.
The main existing programs of the division are:
-Fund CTR programs
-"Engage funders" in the GTEC program (a CTR program for large urban areas that funds great programs like Commute Seattle and Downtown on the Go, unfortunately the Legislature zeroed out GTEC funding in the last biennium.)
-"Provide and support vanpool investments"
-Administer regional mobility grants
-Providing funding and guidance of park and ride lots
After Katy Taylor's optimistic presentation, Rep. Moeller asked what some of the challenges with public transit in WA are, pointing to the fact that local transit agencies are cutting back across the state leaving communities disconnected not better connected. Katy Taylor replied by explaining their creative partnership with private-public programs like the grape line that connect rural communities that are no longer served by Greyhound, but she did not specifically address what the agency can do or potentially do to address the transit funding crisis and pending service cutbacks.
2:00pm
After a lunch break and breakout sessions are over. The groups are now reporting out on the second breakout discussed that addressed what the state's role in public transportation should be in the future.
They are going through take aways that folks have from the breakout sessions.
Tom Jones had an interesting comment that for the first time he realized that transit service and GMA can be in conflict with each other. If you are providing access service for rural areas so transit dependent people can get to services, you may also be providing commuter access to exurban and rural areas that under GMA goals we don't want people to move to. Usually we think as transit being a crucial component of supporting the smart growth that GMA rightfully dictates, circumstances where transit can serve against GMA goals is an interesting twist to contemplate.
Katy Taylor is very optimistic the state of public transit in Washington and about the panel-the outcome that everyone is in it together in this process.
Jon Stanton from Microsoft is discussing the benefits of the Microsoft connector service and highlights that 70% of their connector costumers never rode a bus before Microsoft started their own service and wouldn't take public transportation if the Connector service got canceled. He then highlighted the need for more public-private partnerships. He also said that his kids think transit is cool in Europe but now here.
Rep. Marko Liias noted that he took the Sounder from Snohomish County this morning to attend the JTC meeting that he thought it was pretty cool, while he was relaxing and reading his book instead of sitting in traffic. He suggested that ST and Metro provide potential transit routes that people could take to the next JTC meeting from their homes. It might be hard for folks who live outside of the Central Puget Sound to get to ST headquarters from their homes, but surely they could utilize ST express buses of Sounder from the Eastside, Everett, or Tacoma depending on where they are coming from. It would be interesting to hear what the committee members would say about their transit riding experience especially if they've never been on transit in Washington before.
Senator Haugen said we need to get electric cars to pay their fare share for the infrastructure they use as they replace gas cars (who's drivers pay gas taxes).
3:00pm
Meeting over. Thanks for tuning in. Signing off for now, have a good weekend!
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
"Vehicle Mile Traveled Tax is off the table" claims Senator Mary Margaret Hougen
At today's Joint Transportation Meeting in Olympia Senate Transportation Chair Mary Margaret Hougen stated that "VMT taxes are off the table."
The converstation around VMT taxes came up during the presentation to the Joint Transportation Committee on the potential alternative funding sources for future transportation needs in Washington State.
The study was commissioned by the legislature to ask how the State should fund its transportation needs in light of declining gas tax revenues. In the past few years gas taxes have been declining steadily due to increased gas prices, people driving less, and more efficient vehicles. It is expected that in future years as people switch to hybrids, electric vehicles, and drive less the gas tax will continue to be an unsustainable long term funding source for the road budget in Washington.
Today a draft version of the final funding report was given to the Joint Transportation Committee in Olympia. The funding sources that are percolating to the top are indexed gas taxes and a sales tax on gasoline.
In terms of VMT taxes the report recommended to the legislature that they await federal action on VMT before they look at implementing it in Washington. At that point Senator Hougen asked if there was anywhere in the country or world using VMT taxes system-wide. The consultants response was no. Hougen replied that people who scream about VMT taxes are using it as a fear tactic, the legislature is not going to introduce VMT taxes anytime in the near future and it simply is off the table. It was a pretty interesting dialogue, to say the least.
Here are some other notes about the report especially as it addresses the needs of transit:
On a positive note, the report recommends "expand use of toll revenue for transit". The consultant noted that they looked for examples around the country where transit operations received a portion of toll revenues from the start of tolling on corridors and projects. (Many metropolitan areas like Boston, NYC, and the Bay Area fund a significant amount of transit operations through tolls but the tolls did not go to transit when they were first implemented in decades past.) The consultant highlighted that in San Diego when they implemented HOT lanes a significant portion of the tolls went towards transit. It is great news for transit service in crucial corridors like ST 520 and the Viaduct replacement that the consultant has made this recommendation to the JTC and has found a precedent for tolling for transit from the start of tolling projects elsewhere in the country.
On a less optimistic note the funding report does not propose any new, significant, or sustainable funding sources for transit. In terms of additional local options the only tools they recommend is a .1% extension in local sales tax and a $2 per month employer tax. We are hearing from transit agencies that they have no interest in getting more sales tax authority being that it is a regressive, volatile unsustainable funding source. It is disappointing that the funding study does not pose any real proposals to solve the transit funding crisis in terms of significant state contribution to transit or local options. More soon from Olympia as I will be down here the next three days for December Committee Days.
The presentations from today's meeting on alternative funding sources will be posted to the JTC's website sometime later today. http://www.leg.wa.gov/JTC/Meetings/Pages/default.aspx
The converstation around VMT taxes came up during the presentation to the Joint Transportation Committee on the potential alternative funding sources for future transportation needs in Washington State.
The study was commissioned by the legislature to ask how the State should fund its transportation needs in light of declining gas tax revenues. In the past few years gas taxes have been declining steadily due to increased gas prices, people driving less, and more efficient vehicles. It is expected that in future years as people switch to hybrids, electric vehicles, and drive less the gas tax will continue to be an unsustainable long term funding source for the road budget in Washington.
Today a draft version of the final funding report was given to the Joint Transportation Committee in Olympia. The funding sources that are percolating to the top are indexed gas taxes and a sales tax on gasoline.
In terms of VMT taxes the report recommended to the legislature that they await federal action on VMT before they look at implementing it in Washington. At that point Senator Hougen asked if there was anywhere in the country or world using VMT taxes system-wide. The consultants response was no. Hougen replied that people who scream about VMT taxes are using it as a fear tactic, the legislature is not going to introduce VMT taxes anytime in the near future and it simply is off the table. It was a pretty interesting dialogue, to say the least.
Here are some other notes about the report especially as it addresses the needs of transit:
On a positive note, the report recommends "expand use of toll revenue for transit". The consultant noted that they looked for examples around the country where transit operations received a portion of toll revenues from the start of tolling on corridors and projects. (Many metropolitan areas like Boston, NYC, and the Bay Area fund a significant amount of transit operations through tolls but the tolls did not go to transit when they were first implemented in decades past.) The consultant highlighted that in San Diego when they implemented HOT lanes a significant portion of the tolls went towards transit. It is great news for transit service in crucial corridors like ST 520 and the Viaduct replacement that the consultant has made this recommendation to the JTC and has found a precedent for tolling for transit from the start of tolling projects elsewhere in the country.
On a less optimistic note the funding report does not propose any new, significant, or sustainable funding sources for transit. In terms of additional local options the only tools they recommend is a .1% extension in local sales tax and a $2 per month employer tax. We are hearing from transit agencies that they have no interest in getting more sales tax authority being that it is a regressive, volatile unsustainable funding source. It is disappointing that the funding study does not pose any real proposals to solve the transit funding crisis in terms of significant state contribution to transit or local options. More soon from Olympia as I will be down here the next three days for December Committee Days.
The presentations from today's meeting on alternative funding sources will be posted to the JTC's website sometime later today. http://www.leg.wa.gov/JTC/Meetings/Pages/default.aspx
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