Stop Fueling Climate Change: Coalition Challenges Governor to Shift Transportation Spending

A week before Christmas, CalBike worked with a coalition of 25 transportation and environmental organizations to issue a call to action for California to align its transportation spending with its climate goals. The coalition sent a letter to Governor Gavin Newsom and our state transportation leaders, asking them to shift spending from projects that increase climate-altering emissions to those that mitigate climate change.

Critically, the letter doesn’t ask for any new funds. In a year with a large projected budget deficit, new spending programs would be a tough sell in Sacramento. However, as the letter details, the transportation budget has multiple dedicated funding sources and, thanks to the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), will have more cash in 2024. 

Even without new revenue sources, it’s essential that California change where it spends transportation dollars. With a significant allocation of funding, we could build appealing, connected bikeways, transit infrastructure, and walkable neighborhoods that incentivize active and shared transportation. The build-it-and-they-will-come approach has worked in numerous European cities, and it can work in California, particularly because our wide roadways have the capacity to safely accommodate multiple transportation modes.

The letter provides a list of ambitious requests for the transportation portion of the governor’s budget.

1. Consider any proposed reductions in General Fund spending on transportation infrastructure in the context of our climate and equity goals, and honor prior transit, clean transportation funding, and critical maintenance commitments, including but not limited to TIRCP ($2 billion/year), ATP ($500 million/year), and ZETCP ($1.1 million over four years).
2. Backfill any General Fund cuts by leveraging the existing statutory flexibility of federal highway formula funds as well as funding from the State Highway Account. To maximize this flexibility, California can move up to 50% of National Highway Performance Program funding (nearly $1.25 billion) into the Surface Transportation Block Grant Program, which would make these funds eligible for a significantly wider array of investments, including investments in complete streets (including active transportation infrastructure and certain types of transit priority infrastructure), transit capital projects, climate resilience projects, workforce development programs, and more.
3. Suspend California state investment in new highway capacity (with the potential to rescope or reimagine impacted projects to preserve investment levels and ensure community benefits) as an imprudent use of funds that the state cannot afford, given the realities of the state budget. Last year, the state spent several billion on expansion projects on state highways and local streets and roads. These allocations should be eliminated for this fiscal year to ensure fiscal responsibility and ensure we are not expanding our future pool of maintenance responsibility. Moreover, the effects of such projects further contributing to climate change, environmental injustice, and cumulative pollution burdens on communities will need to be remediated for an untold future cost.
4. Develop a multi-year funding commitment that ensures at least 50% of the State Highway Account (SHA) funds go to VMT-reducing projects while prioritizing investments in California’s most burdened communities. This can include diverting funding away from traffic enforcement to invest in traffic calming and public transportation infrastructure, as that is a safer and more effective approach to achieving our transportation goals.