California’s state Senate budget chair on Monday criticized a proposal from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration that would tap funding for long-term transit projects to prop up cash-strapped Bay Area rail and bus agencies.
What happened: Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) said he was “disappointed and concerned” by the administration’s changing approach, after the governor’s office and state lawmakers failed to finalize a $750 million general fund loan included in the June budget.
The new proposal, shared with POLITICO by the Department of Finance late last week, would authorize the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the coordinating agency for Bay Area transit, to issue short-term loans using funding already awarded for long-term projects.
Wiener said that concept risks cannibalizing dollars for planned construction and would necessitate much shorter windows for agencies to repay the loans.
