Bill providing $80 billion for transit operations funding introduced in US Congress
Seamless Bay Area joins transit and environmental advocacy organizations and labor groups across the country in support of H.R. 7039 - the Stronger Communities Through Better Transit Act, a recent bill announced by Congressman Hank Johnson of Georgia, that could transform transit nationwide with additional funding. Read more about the bill, and then check below if your congressperson has cosponsored this important bill.
If passed, the Stronger Communities Through Better Transit Act will provide $20 billion in annual transit operations funding over four years ($80 billion). This bill represents a major turning point as the federal government has historically targeted its investments in infrastructure projects, leaving states and local governments to fund their own transit service.
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the precarity of relying solely on states and localities to fund public transit service. Increasing federal support for public transportation operations funding has been a longstanding need, especially given the chronic underfunding of transit compared to highway and car-based infrastructure.
Notably, California would likely receive over $3 billion annually through the formula grant program and the 9-county Bay Area could get upwards of $1.28 billion annually.
A California city-by-city breakdown of annual transit operations funding if Rep. Johnson’s bill passes. This analysis was done by the National Campaign for Transit Justice in partnership with the Union of Concerned Scientists. Find a breakdown of each state in this brief.
Representative Johnson (D-GA) introduced the bill on January 18th. As of June 21st, the bill has 123 co-sponsors - the 27 California co-sponsors are listed below:
Barragan (D-44)
Brownley (D-26)
Carbajal (D-24)
Cárdenas (D-29)
Chu (D-28)
DeSaulnier (D-10)
Garcia (D-42)
Gomez (D-34)
Huffman (D-2)
Kamlager-Dove (D-37)
Khanna (D-17)
Lee (D-12)
Lieu (D-36)
Lofgren (D-18)
Matsui (D-7)
Mullin (D-15)
Napolitano (D-31)
Pelosi (D-11)
Porter (D-47)
Ruiz (D-25)
Sánchez (D-38)
Schiff (D-30)
Sherman (D-32)
Swalwell (D-14)
Takani (D-39)
Vargas (D-52)
Waters (D-43)
The map below shows Bay Area House Representatives who have yet to co-sponsor the bill. We urge you to call and ask them to co-sponsor the bill using this call script that includes their office phone numbers.
Map of Bay Area House Representatives who have yet to co-sponsor the Stronger Communities Through Better Transit Act as of 6/7/2024.
This comes at an especially important time as many transit agencies in California (and across the country) anticipate hitting budget shortfalls between now and 2028 if more action is not taken at the local, state, and federal level. Without adequate funding, agencies will be forced to slash service levels, reduce hours of service, lay off essential staff, close stations, and take other drastic measures to balance their budgets. We know this will reduce transit ridership and harm our most transit-dependent communities.
It is unlikely that this bill will pass as a standalone bill. However, it is still important to garner as many cosponsors as possible as this greatly increases the likelihood that the provision will be included in the reauthorization of the federal transportation bill in 2026. This is a common strategy for congressional legislation – a major program reauthorization bill often gathers provisions developed standalone bills that garnered robust support, and rolls them into the major piece of must-pass legislation. The most recent authorization was President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, providing $108 billion federal investments in public transportation. This page has a history of the periodic updating of the Surface Transportation Act.
Temporary, state-level funding has averted imminent fiscal woes
Thanks to a statewide coalition advocacy campaign, including leadership from Seamless Bay Area, last year’s California budget included some $1.1 billion in new funding that can be used for transit operations. This will come out of a new Zero Emission Transit Capital (ZETC) program with revenue generated from the state’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.
Of this $1.1 billion, the Bay Area is expected to receive $400 million. This will avoid the majority of Bay Area budget cuts through fiscal year 2025-26, preserving over 800,000 service hours in FY 24-25 and over 2 million service hours in FY 25-26.
The state budget also retained $4 billion in Transit and Intercity Rail Capital (TIRCP) funds and made them flexible to use for transit operations. However, the Bay Area’s share of $800 million was anticipated to be used for major capital projects. Using this funding for transit operations would abandon billions in federal matching funds for projects like BART to Silicon Valley, SF’s Downtown Rail Extension, and BART Core Capacity.
Before the injection of new state funds, MTC estimated that Bay Area transit agencies will face a cumulative deficit of between $2.5 - $3.3 billion through 2028 (Source). $400 million in temporary relief will help delay shortfalls, hopefully in time for a regional transportation funding measure slated for 2026.
Despite this recent victory, a substantial multi-billion dollar deficit still looms over our public transit system. Prior to the budget deal, the California Transit Association estimated a $6 billion cumulative statewide operations funding deficit through 2028. If left unaddressed, agencies will be forced to undertake massive service cuts, staff lay-offs, and even station closures. This would drastically reduce transit ridership – leading to worse outcomes for our economy, health, environment, and disproportionately impacting our low-income, disability, and marginalized communities reliant on transit.
A Bay Area transportation funding measure is already in the works that could potentially raise up to $2 billion annually. This is a crucial step in transforming regional transit. We are working to ensure the ballot measure includes key governance reforms such as a Regional Network Manager tasked with coordinating transit - such as oversight over fare integration, schedule coordination, regional mapping and wayfinding, to ensure that the outcome is well-coordinated, rider-friendly, convenient service.
Other states recently create stable transit operations funding
Other states have stepped up their efforts to fund transportation operations. For example, last year New York increased the top rate on a payroll tax on employers and individuals with payroll expenses greater than $437,500 from 0.34% to 0.6%. This tax increase is expected to generate $1.1 billion annually and only applies to New York City and some surrounding counties that benefit from regional public transit. Overall, the 2024 New York state budget will include some $9.4 billion for mass transit operations funding.
Minnesota’s recent state budget introduced a sustainable revenue stream for the state’s public transit, estimated to generate $1.1 billion over the next 2 years. These include a new sales tax in Minneapolis and Saint Paul, indexing the gas tax to inflation, a sales tax on motor vehicles, and a retail delivery fee. Funding is flexible and can be used for transit operations, maintenance, capital projects, and active transportation.
In general, California’s state funding for transit operations lags behind that of East Coast states which generally have older and more highly-used transit systems.
Highways, car-infrastructure are much more subsidized than public transportation.
American public transportation is severely underfunded and this bill is a major first step towards shifting the balance of transportation dollars into equitable and sustainable solutions.
In 2019, the United States spent a total of $79.7 billion on public transportation. The federal government provided roughly one-sixth of the funding ($12.3 billion) with state and local governments paying the remaining $67.4 billion. This is dwarfed by the massive $180 billion spent on highways - and this doesn’t even account for the costs incurred by states and local governments to maintain their road networks.
Sources of public transit operations and capital funding in 2019 (Source).
The majority of federal public transit dollars have traditionally been set aside for transit infrastructure projects, but nearly $70 billion in federal emergency funding was issued in the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic to keep transit operators running service. With gradual ridership recoveries and high inflation, most transit agencies anticipate running out of these temporary emergency funds in the coming years.
The United States spends less on public transportation than nations with higher transit ridership
The United States’ $79 billion investment in public transportation pales in comparison to other nations. For example, France spends more than twice as much on public transit than the United States per person — a total of €29.9 billion or $33.4 billion on public transportation in 2019 (based on the average EUR/USD currency exchange rate that year).
Final Thoughts
The Stronger Communities Through Better Transit Act is a first-of-its-kind federal bill specifically aimed at providing operations funding. We know that public transportation is vital for achieving so many of California’s goals from equity to climate to housing and economic growth. This bill is a necessary piece of the puzzle – helping propel transit ridership to the next level.
Again, if your representative was not listed above, we urge you to call and ask them to co-sponsor the bill. Find a call script at this link.