Civic leaders, businesses, and media throughout California agree: It's time to bring our long-neglected transportation infrastructure into the 21st Century to meet the demand for mobility. Transportation California is doing something about it.

We took the lead on the effort to pass Proposition 42, which dedicates the sales tax on gasoline to highway and transit projects. Passed in 2002, this was the most significant step forward for transportation in more than a decade. Proposition 42, which needed a simple majority to win, was approved by 69 percent of voters. The measure carried every county in the state. 

The measure's passage was to have boosted transportation funding by $1.2 to $1.5 billion annually -- as much as $30 billion over the next 20 years.  But in response to California’s multi-year budget deficit, nearly $2.5 billion was diverted away from transportation programs. 

Withholding Proposition 42 funds, plus loans and withdrawals from the transportation account, compound the challenge of providing adequate funding to address the $100 billion backlog of transportation projects needed to accommodate the demands of our growing state in the next 20 years. To help meet those demands, in 2006 Transportation California will work to:

Save Proposition 42 funding, and work for a permanent fix to the provision that allows transportation funds to be withheld. 

Empower local governments to create the funds they need for regional projects. Many California counties dedicate funds from half-cent sales taxes to transportation projects. These local-option sales taxes provide about half of the money used for new construction in the state. This critically important source of funding is in peril. The existing local taxes were passed by a simple majority of voters, and they are expiring. It will now take a two-thirds majority to renew these measures or adopt new ones.

Strengthen the transportation infrastructure for commerce in California at ports, international border crossings, and along principal commercial routes. These ports of entry and highways are important not just in California, but also to the national economy. Transportation California is working to raise awareness about the importance of the infrastructure that supports commerce, and to generate more funding to relieve freight gridlock and create more carrying capacity. Transportation California is also helping to facilitate discussion about transportation between the states of California and Baja California.

Monitor highway funds and state and federal spending to ensure that promised transportation projects are delivered.

We invite you surf our Website and learn more about California's transportation issues, population growth, regional pressures, recent research, current legislation and new ideas.

An informed populace can make the best decisions for our future. Please join us in Building for the Future.

What is Transportation California?
Transportation California is the state's leading transportation advocacy and public education organization.

What is your mission?
Our members are striving to ensure there will be adequate resources to maintain the state's roads and also to enhance the transportation system to meet growing needs in the years ahead.  Mission Statement: Click here.

How long has Transportation California been around?
The leadership came together in 1990 to support Propositions 108 and 111 which created the Transportation Blueprint for the last decade of the 20th century. Prop. 111 increased the gas tax from 9 to 18 cents, and Prop. 108 provided bonding for transit development and expansion. We regrouped in 1996 to support a measure to provide monies for earthquake retrofitting. At that time, Transportation California formed as a not-for-profit 401(c)4 organization. Contributions we receive are tax deductible.

What has Transportation California accomplished?
The first effort was to help pass the Transportation Blueprint in 1990. If we hadn't had that, think of the shape we'd be in today. That was the first significant attempt to address the new demands of transportation infrastructure in California since Gov. Pat Brown's administration. As ambitious as those measures were, however, no one could have anticipated improvements in fuel efficiency that have decreased the effectiveness of the gas tax, nor could anyone have anticipated the current economic and population boom that's putting enormous pressure on the system, and consequently on people and those who supply them with goods and services.

These pressures were pretty clear by the mid-'90s when the Northridge Earthquake shook up the funding mix. Caltrans had to use virtually all the money going into the highway fund for earthquake retrofit in Northern and Southern California -- canceling or delaying projects approved in the 1990 plan.

Transportation California mobilized to the lead the fight for Prop. 192 for earthquake retrofitting. By creating separate funding for earthquake retrofitting, funds once again flowed into the state highway account for improvement and maintenance.

In 1998 we worked successfully to pass Prop. 2, a measure designed to protect the dollars in the state highway fund from diversion. This was approved by 75 percent of California voters. Now the state's politicians will not be able to raid the highway fund like they did over the past decade - diverting more than $1.2 billion in badly needed transportation dollars to non-transportation purposes.

In 1999 our focus was project delivery, an emphasis that resulted from a big backlog of highway improvements that had been approved and funded, but not even started. This year-long effort also was successful. On Oct. 10, Gov. Davis signed into law AB1012, the project delivery bill that will help expedite transportation projects. The legislation creates a loan program to draw down the huge balance in the State Highway Account. It also includes a "use it or lose it" provision for certain federal transportation funds. In 2000, the coalition supported Prop. 35 which reversed the limiting trend and specifically allowed government agencies to contract out necessary design services.

In March 2002, Transportation California took the lead on Proposition 42, a measure that will permanently dedicate the sales on tax on gasoline for transportation purposes only. The measure’s passage will boost transportation funding by $1.2 to $1.5 billion annually – as much as $30 billion over the next 20 years.

And in 2005, Transportation California was asked to spearhead the Fund Prop. 42 coalition, mounting a statewide awareness campaign and working with the Administration to reverse its proposal to suspend Proposition 42, and ultimately to achieve full funding for Proposition 42 at $1.2 billion.  That effort continues in 2006.

Who are your members?
Transportation California is a coalition of groups and individuals concerned about the future of California's transportation networks. Our members are highway contractors as well as trade associations and other groups. These include the Associated General Contractors of California, The Engineering and Utility Contractors Association, the Southern California Contractors Association, the Alliance for Jobs, labor interests such as the Operating Engineers and Laborers unions, cement and aggregate suppliers, and some local transportation planning agencies.