SANDAG keeps planning — for what and when far from clear

Raising local money is not only a key to building regional rail and road projects, but keeping long-range plans on track.

Local matching funds is what brings home federal state dollars, which ultimately provide the bulk of the revenue for such transportation projects.

That familiar equation is essential to fulfilling the vision of the San Diego Association of Government’s $160 billion proposal to overhaul transportation throughout the county in the coming decades.

But the plan relied on four main pillars of local funding, and already two of them likely have been knocked out. That puts the grand design to build highspeed transit, improve roads and create “multimodal” corridors in limbo. SANDAG officials are trying to figure out what’s next, but deep political divisions and years of controversy at the agency may make the path forward more difficult.

Last week, the county Registrar of Voters Office said a signature-gathering effort to place a half-cent sales tax increase proposal on the November ballot to provide for the plan fell short. Initiative backers say they are looking at options to challenge the registrar’s decision. The tax was to provide early funding for some projects, with two more sales-tax increases targeted for subsequent elections.

But the first blow to the plan came earlier from several SANDAG board members. Shortly before approving the plan in December, they made clear they would not support an important funding source: a per-mile “road-use charge” assessed on drivers.

The fee hasn’t been amended out of the plan yet, but that appears to be a given eventually. Losing that component would require significant changes.

“What it really amounts to is a complete update of the regional plan because the road-use charge relates to so many things,” said Coleen Clementson, deputy

executive officer at SANDAG. “You can’t just pull something like that out because it impacts everything.”

Replacing the revenue is one problem, but the plan relies on the road-use charge for something larger.

The fee is designed to persuade people to get out of their cars and take transit, thereby helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The regional plan ultimately needs state approval, and much of the assessment will be based on whether it complies with California’s regulations to reduce emissions.

“It’s not just part of how the plan gets funded, but it greatly influences traffic behavior,” Clementson said. “You directly relate that to transportation choices.”

SANDAG staff have been working on options to deal with the lack of a road-use charge.

Amid all this uncertainty, it’s important to keep in mind that the regional transportation plan is something of a living document. It attempts to map out what should be done over the coming decades, and is updated every four years.

Sometimes the changes are relatively modest. The plan approved last year, however, amounted to a tectonic shift away from automobiles to mass transit.

Clementson said the next plan update likely will have increased focus on San Diego north and east county regions, based on demographics and need.

“We have to make sure the investments are serving those areas as well,” Clementson said.

SANDAG’s attention recently has been on coastal and south areas with the Blue Line trolley extension, which now runs from San Ysidro up to University City. The proposed Purple Line, heading north through central San Diego from south county to Kearny Mesa, and a trolley connection to the airport are the marquee projects that would have benefited from the November tax increase, if voters had approved it.

Those proposals aren’t necessarily going away, but they will be pushed back while funding is pursued.

Clementson said SANDAG is moving ahead with smaller projects to improve the transportation system and preliminary work on longer-term proposals, like the airport trolley.

“We have some of the wherewithal to get projects ready,” the deputy director said. “Obviously, we would like to have more money.”

The big loss with the failed tax November initiative is that SANDAG may miss out on some of the $1.2 trillion in federal infrastructure money approved late last year, because that requires matching funds.

Setbacks and delays of major transportation plans are hardly unique to San Diego. But as SANDAG tries to regroup, the rechief gional planning agency continues to deal with a divided board and controversies.

The board often has split along partisan lines, with Republicans generally favoring expanded highways and Democrats pushing for more transit. SANDAG’s credibility also has been shaken because for years the agency overestimated revenues from previous tax increases and other tax proposals.

More recently, the board restricted use of SANDAG credit cards after inewsource revealed staff had used them to purchase pricey meals.

“I’m dismayed the SANDAG board has become so dysfunctional,” said Mary Casillas Callas, the Democratic mayor of Chula Vista who sits on the board. “We need to build up the reputation and image of SANDAG. We’ve made some missteps. It’s not that they can’t be rectified.”

An improved reputation may help persuade voters to back a tax increase, but first one has to get on the ballot.

Aside from the signature-gathering failure, the tax increase proposed for this November had other issues. Labor and environmental groups drafted the initiative and embarked on a well-funded petitioning campaign independent of SANDAG — even though much of the revenue raised would have gone to projects in the agency’s regional transportation plan.

As a citizens initiative, the measure would have passed with a simple majority vote. The catch was that SANDAG could not be directly involved in the initiative. A ballot measure generated by a government agency requires two-thirds majority approval.

Despite the higher threshold, some SANDAG board members earlier this year wanted ownership of the funding proposal and to pursue its own ballot measure, but that idea didn’t get far.

There may be renewed discussion of that, but the timeline for November makes it impractical for this year. Backers of the sales tax initiative said they will try again in 2024. Some SANDAG officials said that was the initial target year to begin with, but the desire to gain access to the federal infrastructure money, among other things, sped matters up.

Clementson, the SANDAG deputy director, really would like to see what voters think.

“Let’s give the residents of this region the opportunity to weigh in on investing in this plan for their future,” she said.