Measure A 2020 up or down?

Perhaps the most important meeting (aren’t they all) of the transportation year, and maybe next 40 years, will be coming up this week. The Sacramento Transportation Authority (SacTA or STA) will be meeting to adopt the Transportation Expenditure Plan (TEP) for the proposed Measure A 2020 transportation sales tax. The TEP, if adopted, will then go to the county and cities for approval. It is not clear when the ordinance, which implements the TEP, will be adopted. A good TEP will move the county towards a sustainable transportation future, and a bad TEP will leave us mired in the failed policies and projects of the 1970s. This is a bad TEP.

The meeting of SacTA is Thursday, March 12, 1:30PM at the Sacramento County board room, 700 H Street, Sacramento. The agenda is at https://star-transit.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/2eb5a-031220-agp.pdf, and the agenda item is 4.

A huge turnout of people demanding a better TEP may cause the board to re-think its blind support of the Capital Southeast Connectors and other unnecessary highway projects. The SacMoves coalition (of which STAR is a member) and SMART will be meeting beforehand at 1:00.

The second opportunity is the Sacramento City Council meeting on Tuesday, March 10, at 2:00PM. Mayor Steinberg wrote a letter to the SacTA board questioning why the TEP and Ordinance was not in alignment with regional GHG (greenhouse gas) reduction and VMT reduction goals specified by SB 743 and other policies. Though transportation is not on the agenda, this is an opportunity to thank the mayor for standing up, and to remind the other council members that they should be standing up as well.

And the third is the SacMoves and SMART meeting, Friday, March 13, 10:00AM at the Breathe Sacramento and partners offices at 909 12th Street. If your organization is a member of the coalition, or other transportation, transit, or equity groups, make sure you have a representative there. The topic of course will be the outcome of the preceding day SacTA board meeting, and how the advocacy community may respond.

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