Beasley on Transportation Ballot (Audio)

increase infrastructure spending. Here to tell us more, Stephanie Beasley, Capitol Hill transportation reporter from Bloomberg b n A. Stephanie, thank you very much for being with us tell us about how ballot initiatives seem to be at least one of the big drivers for infrastructure spending. Sure, and thanks for having me. UM. So some lobby groups industry lobby groups of transportation industry have been following UM. What they say is an unusually high number ballot measures that would

raise revenue for transportation projects throughout the country. UM. A lot of the by increasing taxes, majority sales taxes, but

also fuel taxes and different states and counties. UM. And what they say is happening is that, you know, state and local governments are trying to sort of fill in where they feel like Congress UM hasn't done enough by providing more federal funding for infrastructure projects, and specifically, you know, the American Public Transportation Association has said that they are seeing a lot of sort of desire to increase revenue

for public transit projects. Stephanie, as you report on this this this topic, does it strike you that, uh, one of the reasons that this these measures tend to pass is that if I am raising a small tax on myself and or my neighbors, um, and the money I know then is going to go to build something where I live. That it's a it's something that is a step that is is easier to fund sometimes maybe than getting these things passed in Congress, right, I think there

is some reluctance in Congress to raise taxes. You know, there have been proposals for years to raise the federal gas tax, and there's sort of an idea that maybe this isn't something that is going to be attractive to voters generally, you know, the American public, and it could be something that would work against lawmakers at the at the federal level, but at the local level, which you're seeing here, as you said, is a lot of um

sort of smaller tax increases. For example, in l A County, you have like a point five percent UH sales tax proposal that they're working with, which would raise about a hundred billion dollars over the next forty years. So this is something really long term they're looking at, and I think probably something that they feel would be palatable to

their voters. Now, as Deephanie, I understand that at least in two states, well in California and in Washington, on the ballots for Los Angeles and Seattle, they've also they've they've had a lot of oppos to these UH to these ballot initiatives. Is this because they are uncomfortable or do not like the actual projects, or is it because they are opposed to the way they're going to be

paid for? UM. I think whenever you talk about raising taxes, UM, that is not something that UM, you know, people who are fiscally conservative I tend to tend to agree with. So I think, as I talked about at the federal level, there's been that that issue, but also at the local level, I think you have the same thing. There are people who are just opposed to the idea of raising taxes And where do you see you know, maybe this is

still a small amount. Um. It still might not be something that, um, you know, people who are physically conservative will get behind. Still, it still seems to me that if I know it's going to build a road in my state or my county, that my fiscal conservatism maybe is a little bit less in part because I know

the money will presumably get spent effectively. Regarding raising gas taxes, I guess another question along these lines is is it somewhat easier perhaps to get people to vote for a small tax like ten cents per gallon when gas prices have fallen so much compared to where they were just a couple of years ago. I think that's what the hope is you have in Oregon. I think it's clack clack of us. I'm going to try to say that, right, that's pretty good. I'm from Washington State. That was a

pretty good pronunciation. Go for it, right. So they're considering a pretty small increase over the next seven years. But what is interesting is you don't see as many of the gas tax hi tax hike proposals here as you do the sales tax. Um. So what you're saying there was mention of Atlanta. They're also considering raising their sales tax by about point five per cent um to help expand their public transit system. UM. So, I think what you are seeing is a lot of small amounts UM.

And I think what they're trying to do at the state and local levels is to really explain to the voters how those dollars will be applied. So you see very specific. You know, they'll say it's going to be applied to these public transit projects or maybe like ten highway projects that we're looking at, or we're gonna, you know, sort of improve the bike and pedestrian walkways, that kind of thing. So so, I think people are trying to be very specific into explaining to voters how they're going

to spend the money. And UM, it seems like the groups are pretty optimistic. I think there's a more than seventy chance um of these ballot measures passing, at least according to UM groups like the American Public Transportation Association and Transportation for America. Okay, it's Definitie Beasley fascinating conversation ballot measures in California, Washington State and others to get the transportation system fixed up. I'm Kathleen Hayes along with Pim Fox and this is Bloomberg.