Link is to an industry blog; they cribbed it from the Mercury News, which requires registration.The California Metropolitan Transportation Commission decided last month to trim the state's transportation improvement plan by $754 million, in advance of the expectation that lower gas taxes and lower oil prices would have a severe effect on state tax-derived revenue. The loss was estimated to be $1.1 billion.
As a result, it is now clear that many high-profile projects are at risk of being severely delayed or cancelled outright. It is being characterized by state officials as potentially "catastrophic" to the state's highway and bridge system.
And the poor get poorer.
About 225 shovel-ready transportation projects across the state are threatened this year alone. "We're taking another whacking," a spokesman said, which marks the largest scaling-back in nearly 20 years, with a further $328.3 million likely to be cut next year. "Big projects will be pushed back, but everybody is going to feel this, especially when the big potholes in front your house don't get filled."