Voters across the country showed strong support Tuesday for infrastructure ballot measures.
Water infrastructure in California will receive a $7.5 billion boost after voters approved Proposition 1 Tuesday by 66.8 percent to 33.2 percent, according to the Sacramento Bee. The measure will allow the state to issue bonds to pay for the infrastructure improvements, which come in the midst of a drought that has withered water supplies, imperiled farms and deprived some Californians of reliable drinking water.
Texas voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 1, an amendment to the state constitution moving money from the state’s rainy day fund to the state highway fund, reported the Houston Chronicle. The rainy day fund is underwritten by the severance tax the energy industry pays.
Transportation experts say the amendment will bring an estimated $1.7 billion to Texas’ highway fund. The new funds, however, cannot be used to fund toll road projects. If revenue in the state’s rainy day fund falls below a set level, money will stop flowing to the highway fund.
Hamilton County, Ohio – home to Cincinnati – will increase sales tax by one-quarter of-one percent to finance the renovation of the historic Union Terminal after 61 percent of voters approved the referendum. The crumbling art deco train station houses the Cincinnati Museum Center.
Before the election, the museum and the city had informally agreed to form a P3 to insulate taxpayers from cost overruns and speed up the timeline for restoring the building.
“We will be the generation that will restore this building and create the legacies and the memories of tomorrow by restoring this iconic building,” Museum Center CEO Doug McDonald told supporters on election night, according to WCPO Cincinnati.
Wisconsin voters approved by a 4-to-1 margin a measure preventing state lawmakers from raiding the state transportation fund for other programs. While state lawmakers stopped using transportation funds to close budget gaps in 2011, the amendment will create a firewall protecting transportation funding into the future, reported the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.
Maryland voters also approved implementation of a transportation lockbox, according to the Baltimore Sun. Voters approved Question 1, which bans diversions from the state’s $4.6 billion transportation trust fund unless the governor declares a fiscal emergency and gets approval from three-fifths of the members in each legislative chamber.
NCPPP
By Editor
November 6, 2014