streetcar to ask for SacRT Prop 1A funds

In June 2017, the SacRT Board of Directors took a position on the use of SacRT’s Proposition 1A funds. SacRT was allocated $25 million of Prop 1A funds in order to prepare regional transit services for the eventual arrival of high speed rail in Sacramento. It was requested that the $25 million available to allocated to the streetcar, though the prior allocation to the SVS Loop was not changed. The original motion failed, but a substitute motion (item 22 of minutes) passed:

Director Hume provided a substitute motion that the allocation of the funds be contingent upon the execution of a Small Starts Grant from the Federal Transit Administration, and $30 million in funding be allocated by the California Transportation Commission from the Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program. Director Schenirer accepted the amendment to this motion, and Director Hume seconded the revised motion. The substitute motion was carried by voice vote.

STAR had heard that Prop 1A funding would again be on the board agenda for August 27 and sent a letter to Henry Li and SacRT board members objecting to any allocation of funds to the streetcar unless the criteria set in 2017 was met; they have not been met, in particular, the Small Starts Grant Agreement. The item was pulled from the agenda, perhaps in response to letters from STAR and SacTRU.

The Sacramento Downtown Riverfront Streetcar (Riverfront JPA) is now asking that $3.5 million of the $25 million be allocated from SacRT to the streetcar to keep the project moving. An information item was on the September 10 agenda (item 8). It is expected that the item will again be on the September 24 agenda, for action, but that agenda won’t be released until about three days before the meeting.

STAR has not taken any position for or against the streetcar, however, we have expressed concerns all along that the funding plan is incomplete, there is no detailed business plan for operating the streetcar, and burden of streetcar funding has been on the City of West Sacramento rather than the City of Sacramento which stands to benefit the most. Sacramento County has not contributed anything.

Leave a comment